The Desert Wraiths
by Zoram Selrof
Summary: Sequel to Project: Walkürenritt. It's been a while since the deal with "P. W." yet the instigators of the scheme have formed a hi-tech terrorist gang of their own: the Desert Wraiths. As if dealing with their hit and runs wasn't annoying enough a group of solo Net Navis proclaiming to be "Gods" show up too. Can the Net Saviors defeat both parties somehow? Rated M for lemon.
1. Chapter 1: Hit and run

**The Desert Wraiths**

**By Zoram Selrof**

**Chapter 1: Hit and run**

09:38 AM (Japan Time), Saturday February the 28th, 2009…

"… Man. Being destined to handling the Okinawa Army Base phone is no fun. Why don't they close this place and send us back home? It's rather pointless to stay here, I'd say. Nothing ever happens."

A recruit in charge of attending phone calls was sitting inside of the reception and was flipping through the pages of a gaming magazine, bored to death, while smoking a cigarette as well.

"Today's a Saturday so most of the guys are either on leave or playing in the barracks... They gotta be playing Poker _again_. Jeez. Why do I always get the short end of the stick?"

The phone rang, so the recruit tossed the magazine asides, placed the cigarette on the ashtray, and picked the phone up.

"Okinawa Army Base. What might I help you with?" The recruit asked while trying to sound polite.

"… You're about to be hit." A distorted voice replied in English.

"Excuse me?" The recruit frowned.

"… You're about to be hit." The voice announced again.

"Who might you be?" The recruit questioned.

A low chuckle could be heard on the other end of the line before it went dead: the recruit frowned and placed the receiver back on its place.

"A prank call, huh… They sure have guts to prank with us. Or maybe it's one of the pals in the barracks."

Explosions began to ring out nearby all of sudden.

"What?"

The recruit ran off his seat and looked out through a window to see laser shots bombarding the airfield strip and the jet fighter hangers.

"W-what in the…?" He cursed.

The perpetrators were some strange advanced-looking crafts.

These craft had a round metallic spheroid set at the center and two hexagon-like wings: the front of the spheroid had a "face" drawn into it instead of having a cockpit.

This face consisted in two reddish eyes, no nose, and a mouth filled with sharp shark-like teeth with three holes inside of its body: two of them were shooting out laser bolts.

The eyes moved around as if to scan the terrain.

The rear of the spheroid had the jet exhaust port.

They looked like slightly edited _Star Wars_ rip-offs.

"W-what the heck are those things?" The recruit wondered aloud.

In less than five minutes, both the airfield and the hangers were a mess and totally unusable.

"No way!"

The crafts shot out towards the Pacific Ocean at a mad speed, soon vanishing into the horizon as quickly as they had appeared.

"You're not telling me that the phone call was an advance warning of this!" The recruit gasped.

"Pete~! You brought the jinx along!" Someone gasped.

"You moron! This has gotta be Choina's handiwork!"

"Are they really gonna provoke us into war?"

"I'm skeptical myself. Maybe they're those rumored hi-tech terrorists guys..."

"Call High Command ASAP!"

09:55 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Phew! This nightmare is over."

"Math, eh?"

Hikari Netto and Saito: were sitting side by side inside of their house's bedroom and working on institute homework.

Netto was by now fifteen years old and he was slightly over a meter and sixty five tall.

He wore his trademark bandana to keep his messy brown hair in place, along with his usual sleeveless orange vest over a white shirt.

He sported bluish jeans and his orange sneakers as well.

Saito looked about one or two inches taller than Netto.

His brown hair had a perfect symmetric shape to it and was neatly combed.

His eyes' irises kept on being the same green emerald color they'd always been.

He sported attire almost identical to Netto's with the only differences being his vest, which was colored sea blue, and his white sneakers.

"Math will always be my sworn foe no matter how many years pass."

"Bear it with, Netto – kun… If you don't then you'll never be able to course a scientific career…" Saito reminded him.

"I know that tune of yours, Saito – niisan… It's almost as old as any _Shiisaa _statue." Netto smirked at him.

"Oi! You wouldn't be trying to pick up a quarrel, would you?" Saito questioned.

"Tteasing ya~." Netto grinned.

"Heh, heh… Hikari – kun likes teasing you! Eh, Saito – kun?" An amused voice rang out from Saito's Link PET.

His Link PET was colored green and white to distinguish it from Netto's.

"Sure, Blood Shadow."

The hologram projector turned on and the Navi inside of the Link PET projected out of it.

Blood Shadow was about a meter and sixty in height or maybe closer to a meter and seventy: his main color of choice was red.

He sported black shades: a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.

His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.

His right forearm was covered by a device colored red coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red: a small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there.

Where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.

"Guess that!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Don't forget 'bout the ol' fella in 'ere, either!" A heavy voice rang out from Netto's Link PET.

"How could we, Sigma?" Netto asked with a broad smile.

Netto's Link PET hologram projector engaged as well.

He was colored jet black and a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area.

This spheroid seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.

His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on both sides of his head and added a "demonic" look to him.

Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand which was easily over a meter tall.

Overall, he seemed to be tall and imposing.

"Mwah, hah, hah! Between the two of us… There's no big bad buddy we can't beat to a pulp!"

"That's for sure."

"Don't get cocky. We still dunno where Twilight ran off to after Boss almost caught him in Melbourne a few weeks ago."

"Mwah, hah, hah… To Korriban in the _Millennium Falcon_'s secret cargo compartments!"

"Huff." Saito rolled his eyes.

DING DONG!

The entrance bell rang.

"… Netto, Saito! Dears! Nelaus – kun has come over!" Haruka announced from downstairs.

"Nelaus? Let's go greet him." Netto looked lightened up.

Both ran downstairs and into the living room, where they found a guy sitting down in one sofa.

The guy was about their age and maybe some inches taller than either Netto or Saito.

He had neatly arranged blonde hair which ended at his neck's base and his eyes' irises were green emerald.

His facial features were rather smooth and suave, thus making him stand out somehow.

He carried a Link PET arm strap: his Link PET was colored golden and purple: its emblem was the Alphabet letter "I" colored purple.

"Hey! Nelaus Rainon! What's up?" Netto greeted with a handshake.

"Fine. I came to bring over some news."

"So… Mr. Shining Knight won't come out to greet his buddies?" Saito asked to someone else.

"Comin' ASAP!" A voice replied from inside of Nelaus' Link PET.

"Isaac's coming."

Isaac, Nelaus' Navi, was about a meter and eighty tall.

His face was young and looked like a guy on his teens: his eyes' irises were purple and they had a hint of amusement to them.

His helmet had a central ruby jewel over the forehead shaped like a cross having four triangle ends: eight lines radiated from the central of it and spread across its surface.

The helmet's main color was navy blue and it was also filled with small round and random green dots.

His ear-pads had a white edge and a reddish central body: the Alphabet "I" letter colored purple had been printed there.

His neck had a piece of armor shaped like the Alphabet "V" protecting its base before the start of the chest: it had a cyan edge which split it into two halves the insides of which were colored yellow.

His shoulders were slightly curved square pieces with brown edges, a central silver matrix and five bronze paws forming out of the southern edge which weren't even 5cm long.

His main body color was blue and a central thin purple line spread from the neck's base until his waist, being interrupted by his chest emblem which had the same design as that of his ear-pads.

Some small jade-colored pieces made of two triangles aiming in opposite directions fused at their base were set in columns along the sides of his upper body: none of them were taller than 2cm.

His waist had a belt with three converging rectangular stripes of white edges and black body.

These fused in a diamond having a gray body plus a repetition of his Navi emblem on its center.

His arms had purplish DNA imprints painted over their surface.

His forearm armor had a magenta matrix on them while his wrists were colored in a bronze color.

His hands were blue in color too and they had a circle with a white edge the insides of which depicted the Katana "I" colored purple: some "stars" were drawn at random over the background of the symbol.

His legs had some round dots set along their height which contained a drawing: the edge was brown, the core of it was purple and eight slightly curved lines painted red stretched from the core: the gaps between each one were colored blue.

The knees contained a circling bracelet colored mahogany and having those two fused triangles on the front colored golden.

The boots were colored purple and had an eight-pointed sapphire set on the inward side just below the ankle: eight thin indigo lines spread from each spook of the sapphire and across the boot.

Overall he was very cool and looked advanced.

"I have a knight – like name, after all."

"Well. I have big news: _those guys_ have made a move." Nelaus turned serious.

"They have?"

"Let's sit down and talk it."

The three of them sat down in the sofa looking towards each other.

"You know the Okinawa Ameroupe Army Base, right?" Nelaus began.

"Yeah. They bring it up on the news from time to time."

"Deal is… Those flying crafts, the _Bifrosts_, have hit them in a hit and run raid. That was less than 1 hour ago."

"And?" Saito asked.

"Huff. They let the airfield strip and the hangers in a wrecked state and it'll take them time to repair 'em. Apparently… One of them warned the guy in charge of the phone by saying "you're about to be hit"… One minute later… The attack had begun. The guy who picked the phone didn't have to report and he hadn't thought of it 'cause he believed it to be a prank call." Nelaus exposed.

"Do we have an estimate from where they came out from or where they flew back to?"

"Nope. They were only seen heading in the direction of Singapore."

"And this is the opening move for _those guys_? Not so much deal: compared to the past…"

"That's how it looks like. The bad part is… We don't know what name they're using and where they could be operating from." Isaac sighed.

"No wonder."

"What a bunch of assholes."

"Netto – kun!" Saito reprimanded.

"Sorry! I know I have to watch my manners in front of other people, but don't forget what they did to us, Saito – niisan!" Netto apologized before arguing.

"I know it. But we mustn't forget our manners."

"Don't worry. I don't like the likes of them, either."

"By the way… Does _that person_ still stalk you, Isaac?" Blood Shadow asked him with a smirk.

"Not as much as before, but I feel like they're doing that. They tend to believe way too much in horoscopes." Isaac rolled his eyes.

"Mwah, hah, hah… They should invent a Horoscope Man!" Sigma laughed.

"Please…" Nelaus groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Newest banner 'round the banned banner!"

"That rhyme's pointless." Blood Shadow sighed.

"Oh?" Haruka looked interested.

"Ahem, Meha! "Beware of the waterfalls: they might hide caves and abodes behind them and there the Sacred Scrolls might be kept. Only pure ones may enter: impure ones shall be refused entry. Beware, oh foolish traveler." … So?"

"Sounds like an RPG rip-off. And I remember that _The Legend of Zelda Mysterious Tree Fruit: Earth Chapter _had a "Dungeon", the 4th one, hidden behind a waterfall." Netto fumed.

"You wouldn't have influenced him, right?" Saito questioned with some suspicion to his voice.

"Well… Maybe yeah maybe not… Maybe Arceus did."

"Arceus, huh. Number 493… We finally got to know about their existence 2 weeks ago on St. Valentine's and they're gonna be the protagonist PKMN of this summer's movie." Nelaus muttered.

"Arceus is unrelated, Sigma." Isaac grumbled.

"Heh! Level 4: Dancing Dragon Dungeon! Boss… Gohma! That crab and its helpers! The Crab Gang! Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Gen V's bad guys will be the Crab Gang!"

"Please…" The other five groaned.

"Tee, heh, heh. He's funny." Haruka giggled.

"Don't give him credit, Mama! It gets WORSE!" Netto protested.

"Seriously!"

"Huff. Well. I think I'll be going to Densan City. I wanna buy a new flashlight. See you around, guys. And good luck surviving Sigma's meddling randomness." Nelaus announced as he stood up.

"Mwah, hah, hah! Beware of stalker girls!" Sigma laughed.

"Yeah. I get the message." Isaac rolled his eyes again.

Nelaus left the home and the twins turned serious again: they climbed back upstairs into their bedroom and sat on their chairs.

"They'll surely resort to real world attacks or either attacks in ill-defended Internet Cities." Saito guessed.

"Yeah. Looks like they want to start a new Cold War altogether…"

"Mwah, hah, hah… We should bring them a heater and thaw their ice!"

"Well… You know: that's not a bad idea."

"And along with the ice… They'll melt into water and evaporate… I get the joke." Netto grinned.

"Soon nothing but steam will be left of them." Saito grinned as well.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh… Steam Man and Nam Maets hit us from the NEN flank using DK's mad hammer! Yo and behold!"

"Shadow Man. Sigma let you in again!"

"Oh young Manipular… Your fate is to become a prideful Warrior-Servant…"

"Where'd you dig that from, Shadow Man?"

"I heard Cosmo Man muttering it atop Silver Tower."

Shadow Man appeared from inside of Sigma's shadow and chuckled as he rose to ground level: Blood Shadow fumed and then seemed to frown under the shades.

"Huff. Cosmo Man, huh. And Cloud Man strikes back with another parody?"

"Correct, Manipular. _Let za rock hit za roll_!"

"Huff. When Count Elec hears that he'll get VERY annoyed." Saito sighed.

"Sure, Hikari Saito… Tell Rock Man he falls into the "Manipular" category too… And now… One! Two! Three! _Ninja_ escape! Puff! Heh, heh, heh!"

09:55 AM (Japan Time)…

"…. Grftx! Give me back my money, you…!"

"Enzan – sama… Do behave yourself."

Ijuuin Enzan was kicking and punching a coffee vending machine inside of the Net Police HQ.

"This damned machine swallowed MY coins and the "cancel" button isn't working properly! I don't have patience for these idiocies: so I've resorted to "kick-punch-blow-spitting"!"

Blues, projecting with the Link PET's holographic projector, looked rather uneasy with a sweat drop on the right side of his forehead and looking rather perplexed.

"The coffee vending machine chases you _everywhere_! Eh, Enzan?" Laika of Sharo joked as he walked towards Enzan.

"Leave me alone, Laika! This is _my_ battle!" Enzan shot back.

The machine suddenly seemed to vibrate: a face looking rather angry popped out of nowhere: it seemed to be made of red fire and its eyes were blank: it roared.

"YIKES!"

The face suddenly vanished and Enzan heard some hardly muffled laughter close by.

"Who the…?"

He turned to the right to spot a guy.

This guy could be about a meter and seventy-five in height but his age was around his early 20s.

He had messy silver hair which spread slightly backwards and formed some spikes: his eyes' irises were blue.

His clothes consisted on a navy blue overcoat which had a central silver button about the waist.

His coat then opened to expose his legs although it covered the rear of them.

He wore a black shirt beneath the overcoat plus black fingerless gloves on his hands: he also sported black jeans and sneakers.

The right shoulder contained blackish armor with an orange-colored edge and a silver button right over it which seemed to help it be gripped to the shoulder: three circles were then drawn on his right sleeve before a triangular piece of armor expanded over the hand: its main body was black too and it had orange edges.

His PET was colored silver and brown and had an emblem: it was a perfect golden-colored cross which was drawn inside of a silver circle having a brownish edge.

"Charles! I hate these jokes of yours!" Enzan growled.

"Oh? And why don't you say anything when I use them every time I go to Maha Ichiban's, then?" Charles asked with a broad smile and sounding amused.

"Grftx! I hate double - edged questions!"

"That's funny to hear." A voice commented from inside of Charles' Link PET.

A Navi projected from the Charles' Link PET.

His body suit was colored in a deep brown color and he appealed as being about a meter and eighty tall in height.

His eyes' irises were chestnut brown and his face seemed to be shaped after a man on his early 20s: he currently displayed some annoyance which they didn't bother to conceal.

His helmet's color was red and so were his boots and forearms: the helmet had the _kanji_ for "seigi" or "justice" written in a golden coloring vertically across his forehead's height.

The Navi seemed to wear a vest over his chest armor colored silver.

This vest had bronze edges: it also had the Alphabet character "D" colored golden set on each side of its body.

His arms contained four thin brownish stripes running down the north, south, west and east side of them until they drew four circles around the wrist: his forearms had extra armor over it colored in a grayish color plus a small red dome inside of each palm.

The legs' length had been designed to include a network of patterns interconnected by some nodes which were reminiscent of human nerves: the boots' front edge was shaped like a triangle and so was the heel: they apparently served as close-quarters combat weapons.

"Swords _are_ double – edged. Right, Davis?"

"That's why."

"I don't see Blackdesu around, though… Is he late?" Laika commented.

"Sorry! I got stuck in a bottleneck!" Someone called out.

A fourth person joined the fray.

He looked around a bit younger than Charles by one or two years and shorter by about 4 to 5 centimeters.

He had unkempt reddish hair and brown eye irises which currently depicted seriousness.

He sported a golden-colored sleeveless vest which was open and he had a black t-shirt underneath it: he also wore blue jeans with a modern-looking double-row belt.

He had an arm strap for a Link PET on his right arm: the Link PET was colored in camouflage colors.

Its emblem was a skull colored black and with blue eyes set against a silver background.

"Why! It's the Knight of the Round Table. Or, rather, my successor, the Cyber Snatcher Ryuuto. Analog Snatcher Leo says he'll be promoted soon enough. By the command of Mr. Commanding No-One. Heh, heh."

"That joke's running old, Charles!"

"Wanna challenged the _Sheriff_?" A voice with a heavy Texas accent challenged from inside of Martin's Link PET.

"Oho! The _Sheriff_ is gonna reward us with his Colts' melody today…"

Martin's Navi projected from inside of his Link PET.

He wore a Mexican-style hat over his brown dust – colored helmet which also had some random blue and black dots scattered around it.

His main body was colored navy blue and he had a blackish vest over the torso which he had open.

He exhibited a _Sheriff_'s star on the right side of his torso.

His shoulders were anatomically correct and they had brass plating over them: the arms' length and the elbows were colored brown too and his forearms were green with two orange circling bands on them.

His wrists had metallic bracelets on them.

He sported a black leather belt with two Colt revolvers on it along with bullets on his waist.

His legs were also colored brown but he had jeans over them which ended at the start of his boots.

The boots were colored black and they had blue and brown dots scattered on them.

"Here's the good ol' _Sheriff_ Lander! Whom do I have to throw into the brig tonight, hmmm?" The Navi, Lander, asked with a broad smile and looking ready to draw out his Colt revolvers.

"_Those guys_ need to." A deep voice announced.

A sheet imitating the color of the wall came out, revealing Dark Miyabi, who looked in a very good mood.

"_Ninja_ trick #17: always bend with your surroundings." Miyabi quoted with a slight hint of amusement.

"I'd say something else: you must always be two steps ahead of your foes." Shadow Man added as he projected with Miyabi's Link PET.

"Good. All of us are here. Let's go meet Commissioner Kifune and talk about the news."

"When the meeting is over… I'll have this gangster hand me back my money." Enzan grumbled as he directed a death glare at the coffee vending machine.

"Enzan – sama… It was only 100 credits! You only put two coins of 50!"

"I'm so gonna rewrite your stiffness one of these days. Whoever programmed you sure was an imbecile when he added this rigidness to you. And I'm sure it was the old man."

"May I remind you, Enzan – sama, that you had no complains over it back when the N1 Grand Prix, on October, 2004."

"Whatever! It pisses me off!" Enzan growled.

"So! Cyber Snatcher! Are you gonna "snatch" these guys? Rotted Dungeon: Akuomentasu. Snake's Remains: Dodongo. Fang Burrow: Gamos. Dancing Dragon Dungeon: Gohma. Unicorn Cave: Degudoga. Ancient Ruins: Tesuchitato. Adventurer's Grave: Guriohku. Sword N Shield Dungeon: Medarock." Charles began to list to Martin.

"Jeez. You had to start playing _The Legend of Zelda Mysterious Fruit: Earth Chapter_ again… Who was the villain? I've forgotten."

"Oho. You'll need a Hyper Ball for this guy: Gorgon. Marquis di Gorgonzola." He grinned.

"Jeez. You're making a pun with a _Tintin_ comic there!"

"There and over there~… Cyber Snatcher Ryuuto: go _Snatch_ 'em all!"

"GHRJKZHLTH!" He growled something undecipherable.

"That melody is like a Purin's melody to me~…"

"JEEZ! Behave already, Charles! Really! What's gotten into you?"

10:18 AM (Japan Time)…

DING DONG!

"… What timing, really…"

"Suspicious, even."

Nelaus, who'd been writing down the things he wanted to buy, looked up from the paper and rolled his eyes.

"You needn't tell me twice." He muttered back.

He walked towards the lobby and checked through the peep hole before unlocking the door.

"'Morning, Nelaus – ku~n!" A jovial voice greeted.

"Good morning, Aura – chan." Nelaus calmly greeted back.

Aura was a girl around fifteen years old and roughly a few inches shorter than Nelaus.

She had orange curly hair and blue eyes.

Today she sported a brown leather jacket coupled with a knee-long skirt, and brown leather boots.

She also carried her arm strap for her Link PET and a handbag: her Link PET's emblem was a stylized "F" letter colored white and black and set against a blue background which was decorated with snow drops.

"Hello, Felicia – chan." Isaac greeted.

"Here's my shining knight!" Felicia giggled.

Felicia seemed to be around her Operator's height at a first glance.

Her helmet was colored olive green and it had a sapphire set into its forehead which glowed differently depending on the light's angle: the helmet included a cobalt blue matrix over its surface.

Her eyes were cobalt blue as well and two twin tails of blondish hair came out from behind her head.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt blue instead and her emblem was the same one as in the PET.

Her shoulders were anatomically correct and had ruby plating over them while her arms and elbow were colored in a mix of blue and white decorated with emerald square dots.

Her forearms were colored orange and had eight thin pink circles circling along their length.

Her legs used a mix of blue and yellow and contained diamond-shaped brown dots scattered at random.

The boots had been painted using orange color and had zigzag patterns which vertically spanned the height of them.

"Did I bother you?" Aura asked Nelaus.

"Not really… I was going to the city and run some errands."

"Why don't we go together? I've already done the Math homework and nothing else to do."

"Sure! Why not?" Nelaus smiled at the suggestion.

He pocketed the list on his right jeans' pocket and picked up a grayish raincoat and a brown hat with a black stripe on it.

"You _do_ love this raincoat, eh?" Aura teased.

"It seems to reflect part of my former affiliation." Nelaus shrugged.

"Have you heard the news, Isaac – ku~n?" Felicia asked Isaac.

"Do you mean the news about the Okinawa…?"

"No! I don't mean that! Woody Allen's new film: it's gonna be a very interesting one!" Felicia giggled in excitement.

"Guess so…" Isaac scratched the back of his helmet.

_A film is more important than the attack at the Army Base? Talk about odd: guess she didn't hear the news._

Nelaus exited his home and locked it down before he pocketed the keys on his raincoat's left pocket.

"I'm sure today will be a very nice day!"

"You read that in the daily horoscope?"

"Of course!"

"You should be called Ms. Horoscope, then." Nelaus smirked.

"Oi! That wasn't fair, Nelaus – kun!" Aura complained.

"Sorry."

"You like teasing me, huh? Don't worry! I don't plan to change the type of relationship we have." Aura giggled.

"As long as we…. Keep it like this… There should no problem."

"Maybe we should go play at a "D" one day~?"

"D? Disco? You mean dance in a disco? As long as you don't buy any weird things and don't try to drink alcohol…"

"No, not a disco~… What's the name for the _Legend of Zelda_ levels?"

"Huh… Temples? Dark Temple, Forest Temple… At least in _Time's Ocarina_… I think that they're named like that in _Twilight Princess_ too as well…"

"Huff. What do you need to open doors and navigate?"

"Map. Keys. Compass. Boss Room's Key."

"… You really can't remember the word? Or are you beating around the bush, Nelaus – kun?"

"Aura – chan! Drop it NOW!" Felicia whispered with some annoyance.

"It'd better if you did, Tamashita – san." Isaac advised.

"Huff! You boys lack any sense of thrill nowadays: well, whatever! Heh!"

"I still dunno what the whole talk was about. Let's just chat."

09:40 AM (Singapore Time)…

"… Be gone."

"You girls should behave."

A Navi was facing a group of Navis.

These Navis had armor colored blood red and helmets made of gold with silvery edges: they had a clearly female appearance.

All of them had red eye irises which displayed no emotion and golden hair fell down from behind their helmets.

They all had a single emblem: the initials "W.R." painted gold and set against a sea blue background.

"I'm Omega."

Omega was about one meter and eighty tall.

He wore a red vest over his mainly black body and red armor over his forearms and boots: two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots as well.

A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the forehead of his helmet which was emitting a cross-shaped flash.

His eyes' irises were blue and they displayed calm and concentration while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached all the way to the floor.

He was fighting the Navis inside of one Internet City Coliseum which looked rather wrecked as if there had been a battle in there.

The sky was filled with evening-like clouds and there was a patch of light shining up there.

"You don't know that it's a bully's act to pick up fights with weaker ones?"

"Be gone."

"Wrong. You girls are the ones who will be gone before you know it!"

The Navi jumped twice into the air and drew a gun-like weapon: he charged it up and shot a ball of fire at the floor.

"This!"

It broke up into smaller ones which hit the underside of the horses thus triggering a nervous reaction: the warriors had to focus on keeping their horses controlled and got distracted, which proved fatal.

"Gotcha."

The Navi had a drawn a green pyramid-shaped sword and had dashed towards the female warriors at a mad speed while leaving a trail of "afterimages" on his wake.

"Slow."

He began a set of combos with the saber: he moved up, down, right, left and spread fin-shaped energy waves across the ground.

"Not yet."

He performed a rising jumping diagonal move: he then jumped down and electrocuted the ground before he charged up energy and unleashed it against his opponents.

"Had enough?"

The horses had been deleted and the female warrior Navis were barely standing up, filled with several wounds which were leaking data.

"For the sake of our Masters… We cast aside our flesh and return to the Valhalla in spirit!" The three of them chanted.

"Shit."

He quickly jumped away as the three Navis began to emit white bursts of light from their bodies: they blew up thus causing a brutal crater to fill the area where they'd been fighting at: nothing salvageable remained.

"Lovely."

"Weather system: control regained. Switching to default mode."

"About damned time." Omega grumbled.

The clouds had dispersed and the Internet City returned to its normal blue sky setting.

"Boss. We had no luck. They have self – destruct programs on them, too."

"_Espèce de savages_…! They keep on being the cowardly and sneaky type…! I'm so going to blow them up and make mincemeat outta 'em one of these days…!" An obviously angry voice replied.

"Boss. A stress attack won't do you any good."

"Grftx! You're right, Omega… First they hit the Okinawa Army Base and now they send their _Valkyries_ to mess around with the Singapore Internet City… What a morning!" The man grumbled.

"Yeah. What should I do?" The Navi named Omega requested.

"Come back to the HQ for the time being… I guess we'll have to make shifts."

"That's what I've always insisted on."

"I know, Omega, I know… First Twilight dupes me. And now it turns out these guys are going to give me trouble even if Twilight hadn't planned any of this."

"Omega. The Court of Norway has sentenced you to… crave!" A voice boomed out of nowhere.

"Cosmo Man. I know it's you lowlife. Show you holographic hide."

"Darkloid" Cosmo Man appeared in the form of a 3D image and he was rubbing his chin with the right hand as he smirked at Omega.

"So, Warrior – Servant. Are you going to Erde – Tyrene and try to open up the Cryptum?" He taunted.

"Tell Twilight to stop spoiling the next _Halo _game and go hack Arceus outta Nintendo's servers to see what kind of a "God" the guy is."

"Hmpf. You'll regret those words, Warrior – Servant! Hah, hah, hah…"

10:51 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Hmpf… These guys can't realize I'm monitoring them to begin with: what a bunch of _naïve_ fools!"

A tall and imposing figure shrouded in the obscurity was looking at a holographic screen displaying the conversation between Cosmo Man and Omega.

"… Yo and behold! Fortencho, Lord of Admirals, will rise!"

"Stop – spoiling – me." Omega hissed.

"Looking forward to next Thursday, Warrior – Servant?"

"Huff. I know _Biohazard 5_'s coming out but I don't mind that now."

"No. You're more concerned about the Mistress ruling over the little mouse which slipped away."

"Come on. Tamashita isn't a sadist. They're the usual girl. Now go to that Erde-something place and find whatever you're looking for."

"Hum! _Star Wars: Legacy 33… Fight Another Day: Part 2_ came out 3 days ago and things seem to be heating up. Heat Man must be involved."

"Heat Man stopped existing 4 years ago already."

"Heh, heh, heh, heh… Crave the pain!"

"Crave your grave."

"Hah. How foolish! Wasting their time with mere chit-chat… Is that all there is the "Neo Gospel Darkloids"? Hah." The figure muttered.

"OH YEAH! LET ZA AGEMO HIT ZA AHPLA!"

"Cloud Man's here too?"

"Maybe he's hijacking the speakers of a Metro Line station."

"Fuck. I'm off and next time I'll bring you a mirror to see your own hide!"

"Come back anytime, stranger. My chain-saw's waiting for you. Heh, heh."

11:02 AM (Japan Time)…

"… You useless rusty and outdated machine…! Give me back my 100 Credits!"

"Enzan – sama…"

Enzan had come out of the meeting and was "battling" the coffee vending machine again.

"Give them back! Give them back! GIVE THEM BACK!" Enzan yelled while raising his voice's volume.

"We should call a technician, Enzan – sama."

"And he'll pick all of the coins in the machine to hand them to the company which built this thing, then! I won't let anyone steal 100 Credits off me!"

"Enzan – sama. Your salary is very high as IPC's Vice – President. 100 Credits should not matter that much."

"Forget about that stuff! My own pride is at stake there!" Enzan quickly shot back.

"Enzan – sama… Why can't you be reasonable?" Blues asked with obvious exasperation on his voice.

"I don't need to!"

Something suddenly hit with a lot of strength the coin slot and left it crushed: there was a noticeable sound of coins falling into the compartment where the change coins were returned.

"Huh? What the…? Ah!"

Enzan spotted two 50 credits coins inside of the compartment: he quickly picked them up and smiled.

"So… Are you gonna say "thanks" or are you gonna pretend I wasn't here?"

"Who…?"

Enzan turned around to spot Charles with a broad smile on his face: he'd used that weird protection over his right arm and hand to crush the slot and force the stuck coins into the compartment: given how it was made of a ductile steel-like material, this was easy for him to do.

"Huh… Thanks. I owe you one." Enzan admitted.

"Is it that hard to ask for a little help? If Netto had been on your spot, he'd politely asked someone to help him instead of resorting to banging the machine." Charles told Enzan with a smile as he used a handkerchief to shake dust off the hand protection.

"Okay, I learnt the lesson."

"That's why I suggested…" Blues began.

"No! I won't ask help out of a technician! He'll steal off my salary!"

Blues sighed in defeat and seemed to roll his eyes under his black shades while slapping his face.

"Ijuuin - kun sure can be stubborn from time to time! Eh, Blues?"

"You said it. I thought that by now Netto would've taught him something: but he keeps on being rather self-centered."

"Heh, heh! Maybe he needs a cold shower?"

"Why not… It would cool him off a lot… He seems to be honoring the "Flame" _Kanji_ in his name." Blues seemed to like the idea.

"What are you two gossiping? I was discussing the Singapore stuff with Charles." Enzan questioned.

"Nothing, Enzan – sama." Blues bowed.

"I'll be going to oversee some stuff at IPC. See ya later."

"And beware of flying pizzas!"

"Jeez. Charles. Stop bringing up Sigma's randomness."

"Did ya call for Analog Snatcher Leo, Dave~? Hal's waiting for ya in Titan!"

12:13 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Blast those guys a thousand times!"

BANG!

A man banged a metallic rectangular table placed inside of a cubical metallic room.

The room was square in shape and was illuminated by fluorescent tubes: it only had one armored entry/exit door.

The only furniture was some wooden chairs and a metallic table with an integrated keyboard, mouse, USB ports and a CD tray on it.

A holographic projector was placed on the middle of the table's surface.

"Shit!"

The man pacing around the table looked on his mid – twenties, had messy jet black hair and red eye irises.

He wore a grayish armor made of several plates joined together of an unknown material and two swords sheaths were attached to his black belt.

His arms and legs were also covered in plating and he had boots and gloves of the same material.

His chest had a round plate like a Navi's emblem with the Alphabet letter "V" drawn there in a purplish color.

A purple ragged, stained and torn cape hung from the back of the shoulders and reached all the way to the floor.

Omega was standing to the right of the door and leaning against the wall: he looked rather used to this kind of situations.

"… Grftx! Did Zero report anything?"

"Yeah. An email which was sent from an Internet Café in Singapore to the Commander of the Okinawa Army Base… It simply read: "Gotcha!" … And it was signed with their group's name… Which is rather fitting for those rascals, anyway."

"Guess it is. What's the name?"

"…"The Desert Wraiths"… That's what was in the email's signature: hence why it's fitting." Omega replied.

"Hmpf. I guess the name means this: they can appear and vanish like real wraiths… We'll have to keep our eyes sharp since they're gonna be hard to deal with." The man grumbled.

"That's obvious, Boss. Well, I'll go rest for a while."

"Do as you like… I'll go ring Dr. Spimer."

"And please don't overdo it"

"I know…"

"I was just reminding you, Boss."

"Yeah. You're dismissed…"

Omega came out while the man sat down on a chair next to the table and kept on grumbling: there was a chuckle and the hologram of Freeze Man formed there.

"Surprise."

"Shit. You found a way in despite the firewalls and all? Ah! Dragon! The jerk: I told him to update the security systems on his PC but he's forgotten all about that: you waited to catch his MAC address when he browsed and rode along his connection to then jump into the Wi-Fi and from there to this Cyber World!"

"Bravo, _Meitantei_ Vadous. My Master, Twilight – sama, challenges you to try to figure out where those pale imitators are at… And to try to catch them too… Heh, heh, heh… Glory to "Neo Gospel"!"

Freeze Man's hologram vanished and alarms rang out: Freeze man's chuckle echoed before the alarms died.

"Fuck. Lovely way to start this new deal 3 weeks after the other…!"

_Desert Wraiths, HUH? Come at me if you've got the DAMNED GUTS! Hah!_


	2. Chapter 2: Boarding party

**Chapter 2: Boarding party**

08:29 AM (St. Petersburg Time), Thursday March the 5th…

"… And then I told Igor: beer controls you!"

"What a joke!"

Two Sharo sailors were joking as they mopped one deck of a frigate stationed just off St. Petersburg.

"This is the _S. S. Winter_!

"And it's equipped with some of the latest and top-notch weaponry and radar capabilities too!"

"It'd normally be full of troops carrying out training exercises… But today we're stationed in St. Petersburg to resupply! Most of the pals are on a week's leave."

"And only we essential personnel remain on board!"

"You should've seen Boris' weird dance the other day… He almost fell overboard! He'd drunk a whole glass of _vodka_ in the blink of an eye to impress the Lieutenant!" One of the sailors was telling his partner.

"Really…" His partner laughed.

They both stopped next to some of the lifeboats to polish them and check that they were properly secured: one of the sailors looked into the waters of the St. Petersburg bay while the other looked at the still-under-construction mole of the St. Petersburg dam.

"Huh? Josef! There's something in the water… It looks like a colony of big fishes." One of the sailors pointed out.

"Some joker must've thrown bread pieces overboard."

"Yeah! That's…!"

One of the sailors didn't get to finish his phrase as something jumped out of the water, tackled him to the ground and latched into him in a blur: the other wasn't able to react because it'd happened so fast.

"JOSEF! HELP ME!" The sailor pleaded.

Josef turned around and all color left his face.

A kind of robot had attached itself to Josef.

The robot had a central spheroid body with two red "eyes" on it and some small hatches.

Four legs which ended in five-toed claws emerged from the central body.

It had a kind of inverted-cone-shaped object on the underneath of the body which was spinning and it was apparently its propulsion helix or turbine.

"W-where did this thing come out from?" Josef uttered.

The machine opened one hatch and took out a small stun-gun like extension: it hit Josef's partner and stunned him: the robot detached itself and looked at Josef, who'd brought out his service gun.

"Stay still or I'll blow you up! By the Motherland!" Josef threatened.

The robot seemed to lower its central body and tense its legs: before Josef could even blink once, it had jumped towards him, tackled him, and latched into him.

"You asked for it!"

Josef began to shoot at close-quarters, but the robot opened another small hatch and took out a magnet extension which it used to draw in all of the bullets: it used the stun gun extension and knocked Josef out before proceeding on forward.

"Uack!"

More robots began to jump out of the water and yells, shouts and the sound of guns being fired rang out from inside of the ship from time to time: everything had fallen silent in less than ten minutes' time.

"Now's our turn to shine~…"

"Shine Man's gonna sue me and you~…"

Some "Dimensional Converters" emerged from several spots on the ship thus trapping it inside of a "Dimensional Area": two Net Navis materialized on the desk.

"Vulture came~…"

Vulture could be about a meter and eighty tall.

He had green eye irises: some green-colored hair emerged from the back of his helmet colored gray.

His shoulders were also spheroids and contained the Cyrillic spelling for "Vulture" in faint golden coloring against the gray color the shoulders had.

Several spiral – like patterns colored white had been carved across his arms and elbows.

He wore a black leather belt with a Battle Chip case attached to the right side of it and a service revolver on its left side.

His legs' patterns looked like they climbed upwards instead of descending like in the arms and were colored black instead.

The boots were white in color and had a gray matrix drawn into them.

His emblem was the Cyrillic symbol for "V" set inside of an open beak colored golden.

"And Cobra~…"

Cobra was about Vulture's height.

He had yellow eyes shaped like a cobra's pupils.

His body was mainly colored brown with some cobra-like skin shaped like rings around his forearms and legs: his main body was covered in skin similar to a cobra's.

The shoulders were spheroids with the word "Cobra" written there using Cyrillic characters colored olive green.

His arms and elbows had some varying and mixing shades of brown, green and blue mixed at random across them.

The forearms were black and his fingers contained fake nails which glowed with a purplish dust as if they'd been colored in purpose.

He wore the mandatory belt too.

His legs and knees used the same color patterns as in the arms but they included yellow where blue and green mixed.

The boots were black too and they had some purplish sparkling dust scattered across their surface.

His emblem was the head of a cobra with its fangs open and the Cyrillic symbol for "C" was placed inside of the cobra's mouth.

"This is Vulture. Phase 1 of Operation: Confiscation is complete, Meta – sama." The first Navi reported.

"This is Cobra. I confirm: we have control of the ship." The second Navi reported.

"You know the drill, lads!" A man's voice replied through Vulture's radio channel.

"Get to the cargo bays." Another man's voice ordered through Cobra's radio channel.

"Roger!" Both replied.

They drew out Long Sword Battle Chips and silently made their way across, being escorted by some of the robots.

"Here are our nice pets…" Vulture chuckled.

"Pets they sure are." Cobra sneered.

They found unconscious sailors and officers all around the ship and more of the robots keeping an eye over them: the two Navis advanced easily and soon reached the cargo bays and stopped in front of one locked armored door.

"Long Sword!"

"Long Sword!"

They broke the locks and entered one of the cargo bays.

"Alright… What do we have here? AKs – 74u, AN – 94s, grenades, SVD sniper rifles, landmines, Makarov pistols, Mauser guns, AMD – 65s, M37 pump-action shotguns and an RPG – 7… What booty!" Vulture smirked.

"I'd even say more: what treasure!" Cobra chuckled.

Two "Dimensional Converters" emerged and began to transport the boxes out of the cargo bay and towards an unknown location.

"Mission accomplished." Vulture reported.

"Operation completed." Cobra reported.

"Return to the base, lads." One of the men ordered.

"Hey! Meta! That pirate dialect doesn't you suit you at all! Did you know it or were you playing Blackbeard?"

"Let me be the show - off, Scorpion." Meta replied.

"You win." Scorpion grumbled.

"Looks like Meta – sama's got a good mood insofar…" Vulture whispered to Cobra.

"Yeah. But I'd say Scorpion – sama isn't pleased with his behavior."

"Well. He's the leader. It can't be helped."

"I know. But the pact was that Scorpion - sama and Viper – dono are equals and they don't need to obey any orders."

"You're right. Well. Maybe he'll wear that mood off soon enough."

"OK! Lads and chaps. Let's get rolling and mowing."

"Please…" Cobra groaned.

"Trouble." Vulture sighed.

"Not as enough trouble as last month."

"Ya needn't remind me, Cobra… Let's go."

14:36 PM (Japan Time)…

"… _Mille tonnerres de Brest! Mille milliards de mille sabords! Tonnerre de Brest! Visigoths! Espèce de cromagnons!"_

Vadous cursed as he paced around the room's table and banged it from time to time: Omega rolled his eyes and stood still.

"They stole a whole frigate's weaponry! Now they'll surely sell them to some cheap dudes to finance their activities! Ah! The rascals! Ah! The jerks! Ah! The bastards! Ah! The lowlifes!" Vadous cursed.

"What do we do? Do we search the Gobi desert from the top to the bottom?"

"You needn't take their name as literal. I'm sure they're somewhere in the countries bordering Dark Land… But I'm rather sure they won't be hiding in Cream Land, taking into account their past actions."

"Yeah. I'd thought of the same thing myself. I'll go and tag along with Zero to snoop the Reverse Cyber World. There might some traces of them passing through it left."

"Go." Vadous merely replied.

"See ya later."

"Ah! And check security again: we don't want Twilight's morons sneaking through Dragon's outdated security!"

"Lartes picked it last evening and updated it: he brought up the data from the intrusion and added it to the IDS so that "dead ends" are added to the circuitry and make them get into a circuitry maze with no end: they can be cornered and extracted." Omega detailed.

"Huff. Good. "Fool me once, you're to shame. Fool me twice, I'm to shame." … Twilight can't hope to fool me twice in a row."

"And he knows that, anyway. I'm on my way there. Maybe there'll be another of those sporadic "Past Visions" too… Later."

"Good luck."

14:41 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Heh, heh, heh!"

"Yamitarou…"

Higure Yamitarou was polishing his Battle Chips inside of his Higureya store: he was standing behind the counter and looked in very high spirits: Number Man, projecting with the hologram, looked in a bad mood.

"Ms. Glassy told me we will have a utopian future! De masu!"

"Yeah. You say that every week ever since you visited her store." Number Man grumbled.

"Heh, heh, heh! Huh? De masu! A customer is coming, de masu!"

Higure spotted a figure running towards the door: however, instead of slowing down, it seemed to head straight for the door.

"A~H! DE MASU~! He's gonna break through it! De masu! Stop! The door, de masu…! The doo~r!" Higure gasped.

The figure suddenly stopped when it was only some centimeters from crashing against it: Higure sighed in relief and the door opened, making the entrance bell sound.

"Welcome to Higureya, de masu! What do you wish to buy, Mr. Customer? De masu?" Higure closed his eyes and rubbed his hands while he put up a confident smile.

Instead of a response, a deep echoing sound resonated inside of the store so Higure opened his eyes and gasped.

"WHA?"

The newcomer was a man, about a meter and eighty tall.

His head was set inside of what looked like a dragon's mouth.

The man's eyes were yellow and lifeless, and his skin looked tanned.

He wore some kind of armor made of bones.

The chest armor was designed to look like a dragon's head.

Both of his shoulder pads had three dragon-like claws supporting a large navy blue cape which reached all the way to the floor.

He carried two golden flutes the extremes of which were shaped like a dragon's head.

"W-who's that guy? De masu?" Higure wondered.

Three terrific roars rang out and, out of nowhere, three large dragons with white-like bodies, blue eyes, wings and tails showed up.

They looked rather ferocious.

"YIKES! It's the dragon invasion, de masu!"

"BURST STREAM OF DESTRUCTION!" A voice yelled in a rather stressed tone as if it wanted the name to sound ominous.

The dragons opened their mouths and charged up energy which they shot out in the form of three consecutive burst streams colored blue.

"A~H! MS. GLASSY~! DE MASU~!"

Higure fainted and the attacks passed through the wall without leaving any mark: the three dragons and the mysterious man vanished into thin air.

"Hum." Number man wasn't impressed.

The entrance bell rang again and two sets of footsteps could be heard entering the store.

"Maybe we overdid it this time…" A man commented.

"Man! You and your jokes…" Another complained.

Higure managed to recover and leaned on the counter to regain breath. He looked up and spotted both Charles and Martin leaning over him with smiles on their faces.

"Surprise~…"

"Huh… De masu…? De masu…! A joke…! De masu…! It was another of your jokes…! De masu! This time you've gone over the border, de masu!"

"Let's run off before this live bomb blows us sky-high, Charles. And you're really overdone it this time around."

"The _Sheriff_ tells you one thing: _clichés_ don't happen in real life!" Lander smirked at Higure.

"NYA~H! OUT! GET OUTTA _MY_ STORE! DE MASU! DON'T – EVER – COME – BACK! DE MASU~!"

Charles and Martin ran out, laughing, while Higure kept on shouting.

"Number Man! You're a collaborationist! You conspire against me, de masu!" Higure protested.

"That's because we're trying to teach you that "love" is not as simple as you think and you shouldn't believe everything people tell you, Yamitarou. You don't have criteria at all: and that's one of your multiple flaws."

"Grftx! I hate conspiracies! De masu!" Higure grumbled.

"Then invent Anti Conspiracies Man!" A voice rang out.

"Heck. Darkloid Cloud Man!" Number Man cursed.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! I'm more famous that Elvis Presley!"

"A Darkloid, de masu? We're doomed! My prayer beads! Where are my prayer beads, de masu? The Gods are angered!"

"Shut up, Yamitarou." Number Man grumbled.

"Trouble… I guess." Kido Shuuko muttered.

"Pyrururu! Cool dragons, pyu!"

"WHA~T? How couldn't you be afraid of those, de masu?" Higure gasped in surprise.

"I'm… not sure."

"Pyrururu! Aqua Man thinks they're cool, pyu!"

14:54 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Netto. What do you plan on doing?"

"Whaddya mean, Meiru – chan?"

Netto had been polishing his notes at the institute's classroom when Sakurai Meiru had confronted him: she didn't look in a good mood.

"How long do you plan on keeping on avoiding me?" She questioned.

"That stuff… Look: it was Aura – chan who picked Nelaus to begin with. If you say you wanna go out in a date with me, then say it. But don't try to come up with some reverse role thing in which _I_ am asking _you_ out in a date." Netto rolled his eyes.

"At least you're admitting something… Well then! I want you to come with me to the theater this Sunday!"

"Alright. I expect you not to be thinking of…"

"Of course not! Roll will go with Saito – kun, obviously enough. They're made for each other. And, besides, the horoscope said that…!" Meiru suddenly stopped herself.

"What a coincidence! According to Nelaus… Aura – chan also reads the horoscope." Netto directed a suspicious glare towards her.

"I do! Does it matter that much?"

"If you believe in those things then you lack criteria. People without criteria are the prey of those jerks."

"Whom do you mean to say?"

"They're named the "Common Patterns". It's a bunch of silly conservative idiots who pull the strings behind mass events and things… They try to erase people's criteria and impose their fashion, tastes and all other stuff into people to control them in an easier manner. But they're about to collapse upon themselves from their inner fighting and decadence."

"I decide what I want on my own! We'll talk later, Netto!"

23:04 PM (Utah Time), Wednesday March the 4th…

"… Run for it!"

"It's an attack!"

Several Navis ran out from one Internet City square which was being attacked by three of the _Valkyrie _Net Navis.

"In the name of ours masters… You shall perish!" All of them announced.

"… Be gone." A voice shot back.

A streak of green lighting travelled across the ground, leaving a crevice on its wake: it hit one of the _Valkyries_ from behind and deleted her by splitting her in half.

"Interloper presence: confirmed. Delete."

The other two _Valkyries_ turned around only to find two large energy spheroids heading towards them: they brought out their shields and let them be broken in the process of intercepting the attack.

"You fell for it." The voice announced.

Two streaks of green lighting travelled across the ground again, leaving a crevice on the ground on their wake: they hit each _Valkyrie_, destroyed their swords, and deleted them by splitting them in half.

"Weather system: return to default mode."

"Good."

The strange clouds in the sky dispersed and returned to the late night sky setting: the figure quickly pulled out as Thunder Man got there.

"Hmm… The enemy's been defeated by someone else, Raoul! Talk about odd."

"Oh! I know who it was!"

"You do?" Thunder Man asked.

"It must've been - _Uncle Sam_! Hah, hah, hah, hah! Oh, hoh, hoh, hoh!"

14:07 PM (Mongolia Time)…

"… My, my… Our super duo has gotten us quite a cache, eh?"

"Sod off, Bella!"

Vulture and Cobra were discussing with a female Navi.

This Navi, Bella, could be on her 20s.

Her eyes' irises were colored blood red and displayed calm.

Some white hair emerged from behind her helmet.

Her bodysuit was mainly colored with a mix of golden and silver colors yet the helmet was bronze.

Her shoulders were anatomically correct and the Cyrillic spelling of "Bella" had been drawn there using blood red pain.

She had wave-like patterns drawn on her arms and elbows colored in different shades of blue and gray.

The forearms were crimson red and she had greenish fake nails over her fingers.

She sported the same type of belt and equipment Cobra did.

Her legs had mail-like patterns colored black drawn over them and exposed some "skin" colored to look like a human's skin.

Her black boots were heeled and the front had a small blade emerging from there.

Her emblem was the Cyrillic symbol for "B" set against a black background and surrounded by eight fangs aiming towards it.

She currently had a smug smile on her face.

"While we were doing that… What were _you_ doing in the meanwhile?"

"It's – a – secret!" She replied with a grin.

"Where did you run off?" Cobra questioned.

"Sorry! But it's classified!" She giggled.

Vulture and Cobra shrugged and looked totally unimpressed with their partner's behavior.

"Okay… Go your own half - way." Vulture smirked.

"You'll end up in Siberia before you know it." Cobra added with a smirk as well.

"Why, you two…!" Bella now looked in a bad mood.

"Run for it." Vulture whispered to Cobra.

"I'm on it." Cobra replied.

"I'm so gonna…!"

Bella didn't get to finish her threat because they had run off the room.

"Why the nerve of those two…! Hmpf! Just you wait! You show-offs!" She scoffed.

She walked off the room and spotted another room's open door so she glanced inside.

"… I've already found us some "clients", Meta… We'll board the stuff in a truck and our Navis will pilot it to the meeting point. They'll be more than a match for those poorly-armed dudes in case they try to take them by force. If they do, we liquidate them and seek another client."

"Good. I like that course of action, Scorpion."

Scorpion was talking with Meta inside of the room: it looked like a command office.

Scorpion was a man on his early thirties with a three-day beard and about a meter and eighty tall.

His eyes' irises were brown and his hair was died gray.

He wore olive green military attire without any medals or distinctions of rank.

"So, Meta… Any news?"

"Not really…"

Meta was on his late twenties or early thirties and was clean shaven.

He could be close to a meter and ninety tall.

His hair was blond and his eyes' irises were blue.

He had an athletic profile to him.

He wore the same kind of olive green military attire as Scorpion.

"I see that our boys are wrapping things up…" A woman's voice rang out close by and it sounded rather amused.

"Viper."

"Yessir."

Viper appeared to be on her late twenties and close to a meter and eighty tall.

She had short blond hair and blue eyes.

She wore olive green military attire with a long skirt which reached past the knees and boots.

She had no distinction whatsoever indicating her rank.

"… Did you go around doing that stuff of yours again, Viper?"

"Oh? Who knows?" Viper teased.

"We do." Scorpion drily replied.

"My, my… Keep on with your business plans… I'll go and look up some stuff regarding our next _coup_…" Viper smiled.

"As long as you do something productive… Then I don't mind your escapades to do that stuff of yours around there, Viper." Meta reminded her.

"I know, _Herr _General…" She smiled.

"Technically… None of us have rank in here. We're former military."

"I knew that, handsome… Bye – bye…"

"As I was saying… The deal could take place two days after tomorrow near the southern Sharo border. What's your take on it?" Scorpion asked Meta.

"Let's follow your suggestions. I like how you've covered the tricky part."

"I'll brief Cobra into the details." Scorpion replied.

"I'll go brief Vulture. Let's get on the move." Meta smiled.

"OH YEAH! LET ZA MOVE HIT ZA BALL!"

"What was that?" Meta gasped.

"Cobra~!"

"I-I'm sorry, Scorpion – sama! I got a mail and when I opened it this rang out: it seemingly came from Vulture so…"

"Seemingly? Check the data twice before opening those! Or our location will be compromised!" Scorpion grumbled.

"I offer no excuses, sir!"

"Huff." Meta fumed.

"OH YEAH! LET ZA ROCK HIT ZA GROUND!"

"Vulture~!"

"I-I'm sorry, Meta – sama, sir! It's just that Cobra…"

"Purge the email's data before they leak out our location!" Meta called out.

"Tee, heh, heh." Bella inwardly giggled close by.

"Oh yes. Let the prey hit the net." Viper sang close by.

"What's with the "Bodies" parodies?" Meta growled.

"Dunno."

16:18 PM (Japan Time)…

"… And as long as you don't try to pull anything _clichéd_ on me, then I won't have a problem with it."

"You're rather stubborn, did you know that?"

"I did."

Netto was trying to shake off Meiru's insistence while he was changing into his street sneakers in the lobby.

_Meiru – chan purposely delayed me to look for a hairpin and now only Saito – niisan and me are here: the others have gone on ahead._

"Meiru – chan… You should try to be more patient…" Roll told her.

"This is not your business, Roll! Your business is with Saito - kun and not with Netto!" Meiru snapped at her.

"It sure can be hard to deal with Meiru – chan when she gets these moods, eh, Roll – chan?" Saito asked her.

"Yeah. I don't know why she won't leave Netto – sann alone. I'm fine with being just "friends" with you. I never really believed that it would beyond that stage: I'm rather realistic. That teasing I did from time to time was a friendly joke." Roll told him in a hushed tone.

"We should tell her the horoscope is outdated."

"Horoscope…? No. Meiru – chan never reads that. She went to see a fortune – teller in Densan City." Roll let out.

"Why did she try to hide it, then?"

"Maybe she thought Netto – san would laugh at her for believing in such stuff…"

"Ah. That could perfectly be … But it wasn't Miyuki – san?"

"Oh. No. It wasn't Miyuki – san. It's a new lady who installed there a few months ago… Ms. Elizabeth Glassy… She's very nice." Roll explained in a hushed tone.

"So that's how it is."

"What were ya two being so hush-hush about?" Meiru questioned with a look of annoyance on her face.

"I was suggesting Saito – kun some films we could go see."

"Ah! Do as you like."

"Let's go, Saito – niisan. We've got Math homework to do."

"Yup. 'Bye, Roll – chan."

"Bye – bye!"

"See you." Meiru told Netto while looking unimpressed.

The exited the institute and went separate ways: Saito checked his PET and opened a mail.

"Listen, Netto – kun. "The Desert Wraiths hit again: _S. S. Winter_, in St. Petersburg, is stormed and the onboard weaponry stolen."…"

"… Those Desert Wraiths rascals have attacked a Sharo ship docked in St. Petersburg bay and stole the contents of a whole cargo bay?"

"Yeah. They used their _Nibelung_ robots and a "Dimensional Area". I guess that that Vulture rascal was part of the boarding party. One crewmember admitted hearing two voices, so the other must've been the one named Cobra." Saito looked rather angry while bringing up the name Vulture.

"Man! They really must be desperate for money to make such a bold move! The only problem is that there is no tracing 'em…"

"I'd rather force them to pull back with a shot from my shotgun."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… I'd rather send 'em flyin' all the way to Siberia with a one-way ticket!" Sigma laughed.

"I'd go for you plan, Sigma." Netto grinned at him.

"I'd go for your plan, Blood." Saito grinned at him.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Time for some creepy plans!"

16:40 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Phew. Here it is!"

Aura walked down a city street and looked around at the shops: she finally stopped in front of one small shop whose label read "ELIZABETH GLASSY'S FORTUNE TELLING": she opened the door, thus making a small chime warn the owner of her entrance.

"Welcome back, dear!" A gentle voice greeted.

"Good afternoon, ma'am." Aura politely greeted back.

The store was decorated with various weird pictures, symbols and portraits of magicians and there was a round wooden table covered by a green mantelpiece: various Tarot cards had been placed on top of it.

"Have a seat, dear."

There was a woman sitting on chair placed behind the table.

This woman was on her 30s.

She could be about a meter and seventy or maybe slightly taller.

She sported a reddish jumper and a knee-long gray wool skirt along with black shoes.

Her hair was dyed green over her natural brown color.

She had reading glasses on.

"Do have a seat, dear…" The storekeeper signaled the chair in front of her.

"Thank you, Ms. Glassy."

Aura sat down and placed the school bag on the ground next to the chair.

"Hum! I can see that you've made slight progress, my dear…"

"Is that so, ma'am?" Aura asked with eagerness.

"Ah! He would rather shift your focuses of attention… If you pay too much attention to something, you could end up unlocking Pandora's Box…"

"Yikes!"

"What else…? A terrible force lies behind the workings of the servants of the gods…! Tall, imposing, commanding… Oh! My! It suddenly vanished…"

"By "servants of the gods"… You mean those _Valkyrie_ Net Navis, Ms. Glassy?"

"True! Concerning that person… He has fought a hard battle to erase his painful past… It is highly unlikely that he will disclose anything unless he was under pressure… But that would be unwise! What must be done instead is to keep things as they are and let them progress on their own…"

"This sounds so exciting!" Felicia giggled.

"Just remember the core of the question, my dears… You must not force them. If they don't want to divulge anything… Then don't insist. If you do this… Then your mutual relationship of trust will keep on existing…" Ms. Glassy summarized.

"We understand, ma'am."

"That is all I can tell you for the moment. Please do take into account my instructions." Ms. Glassy told them.

Aura took out her wallet and paid the agreed amount for her session before she stood up and politely bowed.

"Good – bye, ma'am."

"Have a nice afternoon, my dears."

Aura came out and stretched while giggling: Felicia looked excited too as she walked away from the store.

"Tee, heh, heh. Pandora's Box, eh? I guess Nelaus – kun still has some secrets inside of him."

"But we mustn't force those out of him or Isaac – kun. It was hard enough for them to admit their past the other time around."

"I know, I know… OK! Let's go for more~! Nelaus – ku~n! Tee, heh, heh!"


	3. Chapter 3: Sharp skills

**Chapter 3: Sharp skills**

09:09 AM (Japan Time), Saturday March the 7th…

"Hmmm… Curry… Maha… Bring a Maha Special over here… Hmmm…"

"OGO! ZASTAL TEBYA V KROVATI!" An amused voice rang out.

"AH! It's the aliens! Run for it!"

CRASH! BLOF!

Netto fell from his bed in a totally wild move and hit the back of his head with the floor: his legs were floating in the air and parts of the covers were still over his body: he rubbed the back of his head.

"Ouch… It hurts, it hurts… Who the heck did that?" Netto grumbled.

"That'd be me." Blood Shadow admitted as his hologram appeared mere inches in front of Netto's face.

"_When_ did you learn alien? Did you steal some data from that Xon' Edos guy and translate it into his original idiom or what?" Netto sarcastically asked.

"Alien… BWAH, HAH, HAH!" Blood Shadow exploded into laughter.

"Mwah, hah, hah! He really is slow catching on!" Sigma joined the fray.

"When it comes to waking up in weekends, he keeps on begin the same as years ago." Saito added as he loomed over Netto: he was already dressed up.

"Then what the heck was that idiom?" Netto demanded.

"Russian."

"_That_ was Russian? I don't why I expected it to sound like they made the R sounds stand out…" Netto admitted.

"Mwah, hah, hah! And guess what Blood told ya!" Sigma challenged.

"Uh… "Good morning"…?" Netto tried to guess as he stood up and rubbed the back of his head.

"… "Hah! I caught you sleeping!"…" Blood Shadow corrected.

"I get the joke. I'm gonna have breakfast, dress up and we're going to the HQ." Netto grumbled.

"Just try to pay attention to the alarm clock next time, Netto – kun." Saito reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah… You guys win…" Netto grumbled.

He picked his usual attire from the closet and shut himself in the bathroom: he emerged five minutes later.

"Phew."

He placed the pajamas under the cushion and fixed the bed.

"I'm gonna have whatever's left of the breakfast."

He walked out of the room while Saito typed into the PC to check the weather reports.

"Sun is expected all along this weekend. Rains might start to fall around Tuesday… That's no big deal, then."

"So… What should we do during the "date" afternoon?"

"Hmmm… You should come over as usual. Go patrol the systems near our location: be ready to return to the PETs if anything were to happen."

"Mwah, hah, hah… "Of date and etad goes the foolish calendar"!"

"How silly." Blood Shadow groaned.

"Totally." Saito grumbled.

Netto entered the room two minutes later, still yawning.

"Are we going there?"

"Yeah. Let's go before we rust up." Saito confirmed.

They both picked their respective Link PETs and descended downstairs before they put on their raincoats and the sneakers.

"Later, Mama!"

"'Bye!"

"Be careful!"

The twins exited their home and walked two blocks north until they reached Nelaus' house: they spotted him coming out and locking it down while humming a tune.

"'Morning, guys. Mr. Denpa should be about to pick us up, right?" Nelaus greeted them.

"Yeah. He said he'd be here at 10 o'clock and it's now five to ten."

"I've checked the surroundings and we're not being stalked by our fan - girl." Isaac reported with a broad smile.

"You should say that Aura – chan is our _classmate_."

"She sure can be quite the stalker type from time to time…"

"Meiru – chan tended to do that. Remember how he discovered about us being "Net Saviors" back when we got our first Soul Unison in February, 2005, over four years ago?" Saito asked Netto.

"Oh! Yeah! She was eavesdropping on my conversation with Meijin – san concerning Flash Man's ruckus."

"Maybe Aura – chan takes after her, even."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA SATELLITES HIT ZA ORBIT!"

Cloud Man's 3D image formed next to them while spreading his arms wide and grinning as if challenging them: they glared at the guy with dry looks (save for Sigma, who looked cocky) and he chuckled.

"OH YEAH! LET ZA THUNDERBIRD HIT ZA TOTEM!"

The 3D image vanished but not before the guy started laughing aloud.

"Mwah, hah, hah… The fellow's got some style… Cloud Man Style!"

11:21 AM (Japan Time)…

"…They're chatting about Nicole Kidman, eh?"

"That's what those Misters were saying!"

"How should we proceed?"

"CF" Netto was speaking with another two persons in a hushed tone while standing in the midst of a concrete corridor somewhere.

"Gimme a minute, Nelaus."

"Sure, Hikari."

"CF" Nelaus' helmet kept the blue coloring yet it had gained three square dots on the ear-pads and on the middle of the forehead which were colored golden, crystal and silver from left to right: a black matrix filled the rest of the helmet's surface.

His eyes were unchanged: some blonde hair came out behind the helmet.

The emblem remained unchanged and so did the armor protecting the base of his neck: yet, on the space below the emblem and before the waist belt (unchanged) the alphabet letters "N" and "S" colored in a platinum color had been drawn: the "N" was on the left and the "S" to the right of the vertical line splitting the body in two.

The shoulder design hadn't changed and the arms' patterns remained the same yet his forearms armor was different: the armor over the wrist was transparent purple in color and the Alphabet "N" letter colored green was set over it: the space over the palm had a black circle which contained a small red dot in the middle surrounded by different scales of red from dull red to crimson red.

The fingers had transparent red rings set on each one which glowed with a dull red glow.

His waist belt hadn't changed: his legs' and knee guards hadn't either.

His boots had slightly changed because they now had red and black matrixes across their whole surface.

These matrixes included those "eyes" like in the space over the hands and set on both sides of each boot.

"Yay! Trill's waiting!"

Trill, the child Net Navi, was with them.

"Aha-hah!"

"Yay!"

"Oh?"

The group glanced from the corner: the corridor ahead was blocked by four guards armed with M4s and chatting amongst themselves in a hushed tone of voice.

"Lemme handle that."

"CF" Netto cleared his throat and opened a door close by while he signaled for "CF" Nelaus and Trill to step back and hide: they chuckled or giggled under their breaths,

"Hey there! There, there! They're showing _The Interpreter_ over the TV! It's for free!" He called out.

"Really?" One gasped in surprise.

"Our idol is the main star of it!" Another soldier announced.

"Let's go! Last one stays out!"

"No fair, Bill!"

The four of them ran into the room and "CF" Netto closed the door behind them: he took out a Flame Sword and melted the lock.

"It's unlit in 'ere!" One soldier complained.

"They tricked us!" A second added.

"Bill! It's your fault!" A third announced.

"What! You want to me to be the scapegoat? You'll pay for this!"

A scandal mounted up inside of the room and they could hear the soldiers having a brawl: the three of them quickly rushed up a set of stone stairs into the next floor.

"Good job, Netto and Saito!" Trill told them.

"Thanks!" "CF" Netto blinked him an eye.

"Let me have a bit of the action, too." "CF" Nelaus requested.

He materialized some Budweiser beer cans and rolled them across the ground towards another group of four guards.

"That's Budweiser beer!" One exclaimed.

"Mine!" A second exclaimed.

"Joey! You jerk!" A third cursed.

"Bring it on: you punks!" Joey challenged.

A brawl began to mount up: one of the soldiers managed to open the can, but only a greenish smoke came out: all of the soldiers were soon lying either face – up or face – down in the corridor, snoring aloud.

"Beer is bad for the health!" "CF" Nelaus announced.

They rushed up another set of stone stairs and emerged into the last floor: they inspected the surroundings and spotted a Commander guarding a door with the label: "NO ENTRY".

"Hmm… Let's go for the "promotion" strategy." "CF" Netto suggested with a smile beneath the face-mask.

"Lemme try it." "CF" Nelaus requested.

"Gotcha."

"CF" Nelaus opened another door and cleared his throat.

"Commander Johnson! You've been promoted to Deputy Commander: come firm the legal documents at the Lieutenant Colonel's Office!"

"Yes, sir! I'm on it, sir!"

The Commander ran into the room and "CF" Nelaus pulled the same trick of closing the door and melting the lock.

"H-hello? Is this a test? Am I doing it right? Hello?" The Commander asked with obvious doubt and angst.

The three of them opened the door he had been guarding and found a black slightly torn flag with the words "GOAL" drawn on its body: some 3D letters materialized in the air once they'd grabbed it.

MISSION COMPLETE!

The whole environment was replaced by circuitry board and energy pathways travelling towards a round and shining white "portal" in the middle of the space: the three of them were pulled towards the "portal" and crossed it as everything became white.

"Wo~ho~h!"

The three of them were standing inside another room a few seconds and once the brightness dimmed to normal levels.

This room had a cubical shape and was about four meters tall and ten wide: the walls were covered in a matrix of green lines and black squares: a "Dimensional Area" was covering all of the room's walls too.

"Phew."

A holographic screen popped out and displayed their results:

VR SIMULATOR

MODE: INFILTRATION

LEVEL: NORMAL

RANK: A

TIME: 06:37

USERS: H. NETTO, ROCK MAN, N. RAINON, ISAAC & TRILL

HAVE A NICE DAY!

The screen disappeared as both the "Dimensional Area" and the matrix automatically disengaged: Netto and Nelaus reverted out of their "Cross Fusions" and picked up their reformed Link PETs.

"Heh. Not bad." Netto chuckled.

"Yay! We tricked all of 'em!" Trill giggled.

"They need to use more imagination." Isaac suggested.

"We should go drop you at your room." Netto told Trill.

The group exited the room into a curved metallic corridor which had arches every a hundred meters approximately and was illuminated by fluorescent lights placed on the ceiling.

Various labeled armored metallic doors were placed at either sides of the corridor.

"Trill? Oh! Good morning."

"Hi, Iris."

Iris, the girl Net Navi, rushed down the corridor and stopped when she caught up with them.

"Trill! When will you learn not to run off without telling me firstly? You're becoming rather naughty as of late!" She scolded.

"Trill is sorry, oneechan! Trill thought Trill had told oneechan!" Trill apologized.

"You _always_ need to say where you're going to beforehand, Trill. Else, Iris is gonna get worried." Netto reminded him.

"Trill is sorry, guys! Trill will remember it!"

"As long as you remember this lesson…"

"Please remember to tell me next time." Iris smiled.

"Okay, oneechan!" Trill replied.

"We should be heading back. Take care, Iris and Trill." Nelaus announced.

"Next time you can scare the mean guys with the African mask!" Isaac teased.

"Good – bye, Iris and Trill."

"Take care." Iris replied.

"See ya around!"

"Heh… Mwah, hah, hah… Listen! Today's pretty special and it's worth it hearing to the wise and profound motto by our cook buddy!" Sigma's voice rang out through some speakers.

"Jeez." Blood Shadow complained.

"…evil blessed artifact designed to bring misfortune to the owner and such it will…" A polite voice was announcing.

"Dragon Hell – san AGAIN…" Netto groaned.

"Jeez. It's no fun." Nelaus complained.

"DRAGON HELL! ANGER GOD'S COMING!" Vadous yelled back through the speakers.

"UA~H!"

"Grah! Sigma! You moron! You pissed me off and now you'll regret it! My word!" Vadous grumbled.

"YIKES!"

"Does this happen ALL THE TIME?" Nelaus sighed.

"Yeah." The twins replied.

"Man. I'm glad not to have that guy as room-mate." Isaac sighed.

"By Confucius! My mystic fry-pan is filled with evil spirits!"

"Dragon! Stop acting the idiot! You mean that it's dirty! Cleanse it!"

"Sheesh." The four guys sighed.

"GHRBDKS! I've had ENOUGH of THIS FARCE! By damnation!"

10:50 AM (Mongolia Time)…

"… I see the rendezvous point, V…"

"Roger, C…"

A military truck with no markings whatsoever reached a clearing in which a civilian truck without registration plate was stationed somewhere in a desert: four or five men were standing next to it.

"Remember the plan…"

"Sure…"

The military truck stopped and two persons sporting green military overalls and caps came down.

"Hum. They look hostile…"

"Be ready to move…"

The four or five men who all wore black vests, jeans and shoes along with balaclavas, approached them.

"You're the dudes with the weapons?" One of them questioned.

"Yeah. We are. Where's the money?" One of the military men asked.

"No money and no silliness… We're just gonna kill ya and get the weapons for free." The lead man replied.

They all took out knifes and circled around the two men.

"Hmpf. We predicted this could happen. Let's go for the show, Vulture."

"Okay, Cobra."

Both of them tossed away their military overalls to reveal their real Net Navi forms: the five men gasped in surprise.

"Battle Chip, Long Sword, Area Steal! Double Slot In!"

"Battle Chip, Fumikomizan, Super Vulcan! Double Slot In!"

"What!"

Both Navis warped and quickly plunged their swords through two of the thugs: Vulture took out a Super Vulcan and shot another two while Cobra finished off the remaining one: the thugs' truck engaged and seemed to want to flee the scene.

"Battle Chip, Hell's Burner, Area Steal! Double Slot In!"

Vulture warped next to the truck's gasoline tank and shot the Hell's Burner at it before warping away.

"Hah!"

The result was immediate: the gasoline tank exploded, taking the truck with it and killing the thugs inside of the cabin: the wreckage began to smoke.

"Let's drive back to the base. Both the Sharo Army and the Choina Army will be here soon enough." Vulture told Cobra.

"Roger."

"Heh, heh, heh… So you're going to tell World Marshall that Net Navis will do better than cyborg soldiers in the year 2018's battlefields?"

Yamato Man's hologram formed there and looked taunting.

"Shit. Darkloid Yamato Man." Vulture cursed.

"How they'd know we were here?" Cobra groaned.

"Hmpf. We were looking for hints of your activities and the theft of a Dark Land border outpost truck was our hint. We investigated an identical one and found out their signature. Heh, heh, heh."

"Heck."

"Damn it."

"But since Twilight – sama wants to see how far you can reach with you fools' show, then… We won't tell the "Net Saviors"… The campaign of death and misery has begun! Heh, heh, heh… Hah, hah, hah!"

"These fucking screwing meddling bastards…!"

12:39 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Nelaus. Someone from _Mexico_ is calling you."

"… Vincent strikes back, huh? Let's hear his latest exploit."

"Roger, Capt'n."

Nelaus had been working on the institute homework after he and the twins had gotten back to Akihara Town and looked rather amused.

"_Buenas! Arrímense por el borde y arrójense por él hasta llegar al tugurio del bueno de Lucifer! __BWAH, HAH, HAH!" _A heavy South – Ameroupe accented voice rang out.

"… So… "Hi there! Lean over the edge and drop into it 'till ya reach good ol' Lucifer's den!" … Eh?" Nelaus translated.

"That's the whole issue in a nutshell."

"_No. Yo voy a agarrar un coehete de la NASA y voy a irme a Ganímedes de vacaciones, Caballero._" Nelaus told him.

"_Malditos tipejos de la NASA! Los voy a despedir a todos! __BWAH, HAH, HAH!"_

"You said: "I'm gonna grab one of NASA's rockets and go to Ganymede to enjoy a vacation, Sir." … Very funny!" Isaac translated before exploding into laughter.

"And he replied: "Bloody NASA dudes! I'm so gonna fire 'em all!"… Heh!"

"He sure needs to cast away all of his _Tequila_ and Mexican _Vodka_!"

"Who doubted it?"

"ME~!"

"Aha-hah! One Mettool of Legion 64 fell for the bear's trap. Try to analyze it and figure out something."

"Roger."

"Nelaus Rainon. The Court of Owls has sentenced you to… decadence."

"Hmpf. You. I was expecting you to show up one of these days, Talon."

"Correct. I'm the Talon. I serve the Court of Owls."

A figure had suddenly gotten inside of the room through the open balcony and Nelaus calmly stood up to face them.

"Face me." Nelaus challenged.

The "Talon", the intruder, wore black leather clothes which covered their whole body including a hood with goggles: its design was reminiscent of an owl's face, even.

They carried a belt spanning from the right shoulder to the left flank of the body and which had sheaths for 6 knives: it included a medallion with the drawing of an owl close to the shoulder.

Other equipment included gauntlets: the right one had metallic armor shaped like an owl's face and the left one had some sheaths for smaller knives.

They carried leather boots as well and two knife sheaths attached to the belt's waist.

The gear included two short swords' sheaths attached to his back.

"Coming or not?"

The "Talon" suddenly drew the knives in a blur as they jumped into the air and spun upon their axis but Nelaus quickly picked his chair to block the upper four ones: the lower two ones hit his legs below the knees but he didn't seem to mind them: he threw the chair at the "Talon" who simply hit it with the right hand to push it out of the way but Nelaus used that chance to pull out his knives and stab them on the hips of the attacker who didn't seem to mind them either: Nelaus quickly ducked as they drew both blades and tried to attack him: he pulled out the knives from the hips and stabbed them into the feet but the thick armor blocked them out: the "Talon" suddenly kicked his face with the right foot and Nelaus recoiled as the "Talon" picked up both knives and retrieved the other four too.

"Che. This guy's silence makes me feel nervous…"

Nelaus picked his school bag as a shield next to dodge and block the knife-throwing moves and then ran forward using it as shield and limiting the maneuvering space for the "Talon" but they jumped into the air, drew one blade, and landed behind Nelaus to make a cut across his back about half of his body's width: the cut quickly healed and Nelaus calmly rammed into the "Talon" with the chair and trapped him into the wall: the "Talon" merely ducked and dropped to his knees before he plunged both knives into Nelaus' feet: he ignored those wounds since they immediately healed and Nelaus jumped back while still holding the chair.

"Had enough, you freak?"

"Hmpf… I'll leave it at here, Plasma Snake." A familiar voice rang out from a radio the "Talon" had.

"What Plasma Snake, Twilight?"

"Hah! Solid, Liquid, Gas and Plasma! The _Snake Shitenou_!"

"How _clever_." Isaac drily muttered.

"Hah, hah, hah! Hah, hah, hah!"

"What's your game?"

"Dunno yet and yet dunno."

"How funny. _Ex – senpai_."

"How dry. Ex – disciple."

"Hmpf." Isaac was unimpressed.

"Heh, heh, heh… You guys' ambitions will be forever frozen in Gondwana."

"Oh yeah, Freeze Man? I'm SO scared."

"Talon! Pull out. Heh, heh, heh."

The "Talon" silently came out from the balcony and into the rooftops while Nelaus grumbled something out of annoyance.

"What a jerk."

12:55 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hell, hell and HELL!"

BLAM!

Vadous banged the armrests of the armchair he was sitting in. was shaped like a dome: the ground had the general form of the Hikari emblem although the straight line and the pyramid-like bases were placed at the north and south ends instead of being in the north-west and south-east ends like in Netto's bandana.

There were two half-hexagon spots which had been built such that the ground was thirty centimeters lower and covered in a grid-like material to allow for air to flow across it.

The corridor was only wide enough for one person to walk through and it had a small hole from which a rail originated around the middle point of it: it extended forward until it reached the spot where the man's armchair (which had a purple Alphabet "V" drawn behind it) was at.

A closed hatch could be seen set on the ceiling directly above this middle spot.

The far end had a control console a group of 3 LCD screens set in a curved manner over the console: the room had some circular LED lights (like the ones in traffic lights) set on the walls forming figures.

Vadous was watching satellite imagery of the site of the slaughter which had happened at an unspecified amount of time before.

"The bloody desert wind erased their truck's tracks! There's no way to trace it anywhere… And they left this in plain sight to tell people what'll happen if they try to play smart, huh? What a bunch of bastards!" He cursed.

He glanced at a small radar icon on the lower right corner of the LCD screen which displayed a blinking red dot apparently very close by: he fumed.

"Omega… That trick is older than Japan itself."

Omega disengaged his stealth camouflage with a sigh.

"I just wanted to try to amuse you, _Danna_."

"When did you pick up that weird name?" Vadous asked as he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Oh, I thought it'd amuse you, Boss." Omega admitted.

"… If they did this 'cause the others wanted the weapons for free, then it makes sense… I'm sure that their Navis were the ones riding on that bloody truck to begin with… Maybe we should keep an eye around the Gobi Desert…" Vadous sounded like he'd managed to cool down somewhat.

"Guess that."

"Incoming call. Caller ID: _Herr_ Kount Kamiel Serbauf." An automated voice announced as Vadous' cell phone (attached to his belt) began to ring.

Vadous picked it up and engaged the speaker function.

"_Guten Morgen_, _Herr_ Kount." Vadous greeted in English using a pronounced German accent.

"Ach, so! _Guten Morgen_, _Herr_ Vadous. I have some news." _Herr_ Kount announced after greeting back.

"What might those be?" Vadous politely asked.

"I had a talk with young von Schneider… He's been revising the programming of the _Valkyries_ and found something odd: some kind of override code."

"Is that so? Did the Dark Land guys program that?" Vadous assumed.

"No. Apparently… The former head of the R&D lab did on his own without notifying young Von Schneider."

"Hum! And what's needed to trigger that override code?"

"Something named "The Call of God"… What it is about… Not even young von Schneider knows."

"Hum."

"It's supposed to be some kind of external stimulus or signal transmitted over a determined frequency which compels the _Valkyries_ to obey it."

"… "The Call of God"… Hmmm… I guess that guy planned on keeping them for his own profits or trying to sell them to the highest bidder… He once presumed of being a God himself, but that was just another of his endless delusions." Vadous brought a hand to his chin.

"That's how it looks like, _Herr _Vadous."

"You should suggest to von Schneider to try to decode as much as possible from the programming. We need all possible leads. Do ask of him if either the _Bifrosts_ or the _Nibelungs_ have a determined radio frequency or in which type of radio frequency ranges they operate." Vadous requested.

"_Ach, so!_ I shall look into it. _Auf Wiedersehen_."

"_Auf Wiedersehen_."

Vadous attached the cell phone into his belt and seemed to be thinking about the conversation he'd just maintained with _Herr_ Kount.

"So… The _Valkyries _seem to be under the control of another party altogether… Maybe it's the Choina Army?" Omega suggested.

"It wouldn't surprise me."

"Hmmm… Maybe…" Omega suddenly frowned and brought a hand to his chin.

"What?" Vadous asked, glancing over his right shoulder.

"… I need to research it a bit… But it could be something important…"

"Research on that stuff while I try to find out what are those Choina Army guys up to and if they are the ones who bought the _Valkyries_. If not… I'll look up somewhere else."

"Okay. And don't try to overdo it, Boss, or we'll get Lartes bedridden with a nervous crisis at this rate. See ya later."

14:24 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Why are we snooping 'round 'ere? Martin?"

"There could be someone who knows something."

Martin was walking across the activity-filled corridors of a _Pachinko_ locale and glancing at the people playing at the machines.

"… Nothing…"

He walked further in into the bar where he spotted another group of people playing _Mahjong_.

"Let's sit down."

He finally sat down on an unoccupied table: a waiter appeared next to him.

"What would you like?" The waiter asked.

"Please bring me a bottle of Coke." Martin requested.

"Certainly."

Martin drew a folded newspaper and used it as a cover to examine the people present in the bar.

"My, my, my… Who'd said we'd meet again here of all places, Martin Blackdesu?" A woman's voice rang out nearby.

Martin glanced at his left and spotted a woman on her early twenties about his height.

She had short black hair and green eye irises.

She wore military overalls with the Ameroupe Air Force symbol on the right side of it as well as some distinctions of rank.

She had a smug smile on her face.

"… Commander Ursula Madgen." Martin dully announced.

"Correct. I wasn't expecting to bump into you after you quit the SAS... And even less in a random _Pachinko_." Ursula smirked.

"And you transferred to the Ameroupe Air Force afterwards. If you were trying to convince me to be a recruit you know my answer." Martin told her.

"I know. However… I believe there's a little score to settle between the two of us…" Ursula smirked again.

"Get lost, Ursula. I don't care if you got ditched again. It has nothing to do with me."

"You'd do well to stay away from the Desert Wraiths, Martin. They're my catch."

"Nope. I'm gonna find out where they are and deal with 'em. Once you find a way around those bloody weapons then it's easy to deal with just three Net Navis. And I really doubt you being able of catching 'em to begin with."

"Hmpf! Do as you like… But I will always be one step ahead of you, Martin." Ursula smirked.

Martin kept on shuffling through the newspaper: the waiter returned and placed the Coke bottle with a glass on the table a few minutes later.

"Will you wish anything else?" The waiter asked.

"That'll be all, thank you." Martin replied.

"I guess we didn't have luck." Lander commented.

"And Ursula will try to come after me: I don't want her to steal the glory."

"That's for sure." Lander rolled his eyes.

"I'll pay the drink and get outta here. I guess those guys won't let anyone have any info regarding their area of operations."

"Yeah. I rather guess they'll fortify themselves in their foxhole. Like in the middle Ages: fortify and come out to repel a siege."

"Sure… Let's go back home and try to pierce the data together."

_These guys are starting to get REALLY annoying. Jeez. I'll defeat them yet!_


	4. Chapter 4: Descent of God

**Chapter 4: Descent of God**

09:13 AM (Japan Time), Sunday March the 8th…

"… Tom kicks to James. James shoots and…! That was close!"

The Internet City Stadium crowd moaned in disappointment upon seeing how the chance for a goal had been missed because the ball had shot over the goalpost.

"Man!"

"The local team, Densan Maniacs, have scored 3 goals! Kobe Turtles, the visiting team, 2 goals! We're in the 2nd half of the match and these are the last 5 minutes of prorogue!"

"Go, go!"

"The Densan Maniacs have control of the ball and are heading towards the Kobe Turtles' area! Sam from the Kobe Turtles has managed to snatch the ball! He kicks it towards Bill! Bill runs towards the goalpost! Jim from the Densan Maniacs skids across the ground and kicks the ball out of the arena! Out! The ball's out!"

The referee whistled the whistle and brought the ball into the center of the arena.

"The Densan Maniacs have control of the ball again! Two minutes are left! They're heading towards the Kobe Turtles' area! Jim kicks it over the defense line and Mac picks it up! He kicks and…! GOA~L!"

The Densan Maniacs followers began to sound trumpets and wave their flags while the Kobe Turtles' followers sighed in defeat.

"The Densan Maniacs win this match four to two! It's been an exciting match 'till the very last moment! That's all for today, folks!"

The crowd dispersed and the staff began to clean out the stadium while each teams' players departed the arena.

"Next in today's agenda is…!" The radio commentator began saying before being cut off.

A loud whistle followed by a burst of static filled the radio frequency before resuming.

"Bow before MY might!" A distorted voice came in.

People hearing the broadcast frowned and looked puzzled while the commentators were trying to find out what was wrong with the equipment.

"Someone's hacked into our frequency and overridden it!" One realized.

The skies suddenly turned gray and loud rumbles echoed all around Internet City: a mass of clouds began to accumulate over the stadium and grown in size.

"Come out and face your untimely demises!" A manly voice challenged.

Blues, Search Man, Davis and Lander logged into Internet City and appeared in the arena immediately enough: Blood Shadow joined the fray a few seconds later.

"Show yourself!" Blues demanded.

"Hah! You lowlifes asked for it, vermin!" The voice replied with obvious arrogance.

A thunderbolt fell down from the sky and hit the exact middle point of the arena: a tall figure could be distinguished inside of it and the glow from its landing began to fade.

"Hah!"

They newcomer was a Net Navi almost two meters tall.

He had large blond hair which reached all the way to the floor and cold blue eye irises.

His bodysuit seemed to be designed to look like a crimson red tunic which included a golden belt: his "skin" emulated human skin's coloring.

His forearms were covered in golden circles with runes engraved on them: these forearms were blue in color.

His chest emblem was a series of Nordic runes colored silver and set against a black background: the rim of it was golden as well.

His boots also had the golden circles placed along their height: the boots' color was crimson.

He wielded a large hammer which was frizzling with electricity on his right hand and a large round shield with runes engraved on it on his left hand.

"I am… _Thor_! You shall bow before MY might!"

"Where did you lowlife come out from?" Blues demanded after drawing a Long Sword.

"Hah! I suppose you lowlifes could name me a Darkloid. I formed on my own years ago and I have been watching, observing and collecting information! Now is the moment to appear and impose my rule!" Thor proclaimed.

"Wait… Nordic God… "The call of God"… You're the one who can override the _Valkyries_, then?" Search Man deduced on the spot.

They failed to spot Freeze Man's 3D image looking on from inside of one of the access corridors to the arena: he was smirking.

"Hmpf. Looks like a rip-off from some classical canvas at the best…"

"That's right! Gate knew of my existence, so he programmed them to be MY followers! A God is nothing if he has not followers!" Thor proclaimed.

"_Clichéd_." Blood Shadow drily muttered.

"Now you shall face the Anger of God! Come out! Spirits of Niflheim!"

Some black circles with red rims appeared on the ground: several Zombie-like Net Navis came out from them while crawling or walking in an erratic manner.

Most of their cyber flesh looked "rotten" and had holes on them which were leaking data.

Their eyes were blank and their chest emblems totally erased.

They began to crawl or advance towards the Net Saviors.

"Now I shall…!" Thor began saying.

"Sorry. Too late."

An explosion rang out and Thor was sent flying until he crashed with his back into some of the seats: he had a large burn mark on his lower torso area and a rather nasty-looking wound.

"Impossible! Who dared to attack a God in such a vermin-like manner?"

"That'd be me." Blood Shadow calmly replied: his double-barreled shotgun was smoking.

"You vermin…! You lowlifes shall regret with your life having dared to attack a GOD!" Thor roared.

He brought out his hammer and hit the ground with it: several thunderbolts rained down from the clouds and fell around Blood Shadow who was far from impressed.

"Area Steal!"

He warped from the spot he was at and silently reappeared behind Thor.

"Charged shotgun shot!"

"GUAH!"

The powerful blast left a noticeable wound on Thor's back and sent him flying until he crashed with his face into the ground.

"A "God"… Don't make us laugh. You're no more than a cheap Darkloid who relies on some small tricks and keeping his opponents busy with those zombies to win." Blood Shadow dully told him.

"Hmpf. I'll agree with them on that." Freeze Man smirked.

"W-why you…!" Thor hissed.

"You're cornered." Blues announced.

The Net Saviors had already disposed of the zombies.

"… I find it hard to believe that Gate would go to such extremes just for a cheap Darkloid." Isaac commented.

"You came in to help us overrun those guys, huh?" Blues greeted.

"D-damn you…! I AM A GOD!" He roared.

He quickly stood up and raised his right arm with the hammer on it: several thunderbolts hit the hammer and began to build up energy on its body.

"Spreading Electricity!"

He jumped into the air and turned the hammer around 180º, causing it to hit the floor and provoke a circle of electricity which covered the whole of it: the Net Saviors had already jumped out of the way.

"Sonic Boom!"

"Scope Gun!"

"Super Vulcan!"

"Mad Vulcan X!"

"Justice Cannon!"

"Colt Rush!"

The six attacks hit Thor from different angles, not giving him any chance to counter any of them: his wounds had become graver and he was panting while having trouble to stand up.

"CHE! Next time I shall annihilate you lowlifes with MY _Valkyries_!"

He became data and shot skywards towards the clouds: the mass of clouds dispersed and soon enough the sky was clear.

"… This reeks."

"My analysis told me that he was no Darkloid. He had the clear data structure indicating that he'd been designed by a skillful programmer."

"A total bunch of lies, huh? One thing is clear: he has a lot of ego."

09:29 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Who told you that you could come out like that?"

"I apologize, my lord!"

Thor was kneeling in front of a tall and ominous figure which sounded rather angry: the location was a Cyber World somewhere which had very poor lighting so it was hard to judge its scale.

"I told you that your armor was still under development and the one you have is a temporary placeholder." The figure scolded him.

"I was misinformed, my lord… But I did not expect them to…!"

"You weren't expecting them to fight you directly? Do you have any idea of how many foes they have faced over the years? You're just another one to add to the roster. That's all." The figure told Thor.

"My lord… What is my punishment?" Thor sounded like he knew it was inevitable.

"Hibernation." The figure replied.

"My lord…!" Thor tried to argue.

The figure took out one arm hidden behind a cape and gripped Thor's chest emblem: Thor roared in agony until his system entered emergency shutdown.

"_Valkyries_." The figure summoned.

Two _Valkyries_ appeared and dragged Thor's body out of the room: the figure scoffed.

"He is still like a rebellious youth. This needs to be fixed or the whole scheme will be exposed by his idiocies." The figure muttered.

"Great One."

"_Valkyries_! Be ready for a new sortie!"

"Roger."

09:37 AM (Japan Time)…

… _Huh? Where am I? What are these sensations…? Oh yeah… I now remember… Netto – kun and Saito – kun suggested we could "spice" up our threesomes so we came to some closed down dungeon and found some machines which we've begun to test out… Guess I got comfortable and fell asleep…_

Hikawa began to regain consciousness and realized he couldn't see anything yet he wasn't nervous.

_I feel the S&M gear on me…_

This gear consisted on some leather bands set on his body: they formed a pyramidal shape with a stripe splitting them in half: another two bands arched over his shoulders and connected with the band circling his upper body.

He also had a thick leather collar where the apex of the "pyramid" was attached at.

His legs were strapped to a metallic platform using adjustable leather bands.

He had a blindfold on and had a plastic spheroid with some holes on it placed over his mouth: a leather band circled around his head to keep it on place.

His cock's base had a round leather band into which another three placed south, west and east spread and tightened his balls.

_And I'm inside of the "pool"… Well… Wrong. It's not a pool. Well. The weird tentacle machine, I'd name it…_

He could feel how his body was lying face-up atop a metallic surface slightly inclined and some thick leather restrains were keeping him in place: he felt some jets of pressurized warm water striking his body from different angles.

_They feel good… Guess they're going to start it up again… I want to feel the thrill of this machine again…_

He heard some mechanical sounds and noticed two plastic cylinders with a round membrane around their end landing on his nipples and starting to spin clockwise and anti-clockwise while rubbing against his skin: the insides of the tube had some rubber on them which tightened around his nipples and rubbed against them.

_YEAH! This is it! More!_

He then felt a thinner rod entering his urethra and starting to spin inside of his cock while its rubber material rubbed against the insides of his cock: he arched his head backwards.

_O~H! I like this! Next!_

Next came another two cylinders which were stuffed into his ass and they began to spin at different directions while rubbing against his insides: he was drooling by now.

_The rubbing! This feeling! This machine is brilliant! It makes me feel SO good: I was right on suggesting that we spice stuff up! I guess either Netto – kun or Saito – kun will jump in and have me do them a blowjob… I don't mind it: I'm totally used to those… Heck, we've been playing threesomes for about 4 years already. We don't grow tired of those._

He felt someone stepping over shallow water and then his ball-gag was removed as his head was lifted: a cock got into his mouth and he calmly began to lick and suck it while following the pace set.

_I think this is Netto – kun's. Saito – kun must be testing the horse: I'll give you a good blowjob, Netto – kun. I'm in a very good mood today. And since we always do it "friendly" then…_

He followed the pace until he made the guy there release: his mouth got filled and he quickly swallowed it up before the ball-gag was placed back on its place and the guy began to rub his cock to tease him.

_O~h! You're teasing me, Netto – kun? I love this feeling!_

The device on his cock got taken out and he suddenly jerked as he released in several spurts: he inwardly chuckled and began to faint…

09:41 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Where did that guy come out from, anyway?"

"Dunno."

Netto and Saito were talking with Blood Shadow regarding Thor's _debut_.

"One thing is clear: there's another party asides from the Desert Wraiths. And we don't know what they really want. That Thor guy looked like he was acting on his own, but something tells me he has a boss. And I think he isn't Twilight either."

"The way he vanished made it impossible to track him down, right?"

"Yeah. He even set up one or two dummies inside of them."

"Mwah, hah, hah! Hah, hah, hah! If he shows his hide around again, I'm gonna send him flying to Laos!" Sigma laughed.

"Come on…" Saito sighed.

"Well! Today's evening we'll have to endure the "date" with Meiru – chan… How will you handle being with Roll, thought?" Netto asked him.

"I asked for a little favor out of Charles. He gave me a prototype materialization program Vadous – san had designed along with an avatar program. This way Roll – chan can disguise to look like a normal person."

"I see you've covered that part. Good luck." Netto smirked.

"Oi: Roll – chan is straighter – headed than Meiru – chan is. _I_ should be wishing you good luck." Saito protested.

"I knew that. I was teasing ya."

"You like teasing me, huh? You win. I'm going to go buy some new pens.

Saito picked his Link PET and placed it on his arm strap. He picked his wallet, checked its contents, and walked out of the room.

"Mwah, hah, hah! Beware of man – eater pens!" Sigma laughed.

"Yeah, I get the joke." Saito rolled his eyes.

08:48 AM (Mongolia Time)…

"… Did you see _that_?"

"I did!"

Scorpion had rushed into Meta's office to tell him of what just happened only to find out that Meta was already aware of it and he looked rather pissed off.

"That Dr. Gate guy… He was in no – one's side! He was as treacherous as Twilight too!" Meta cursed.

"So it'd seem!" Scorpion added.

"At least we know that there's no danger of such a thing happening with the _Bifrosts _and the _Nibelungs_." Cobra commented.

"And they are easy to mass – produce, after all."

"What's going on?" Viper asked as she walked on.

"Are you discussing 'bout that Thor guy?" Bella guessed.

"Yeah. Dr. Gate had his own goals. Maybe he expected us to be beaten and prepared something to keep them busy. And maybe Twilight will do nothing and see how far they can come to begin with."

"But it's late to do anything about him: he's gone MIA."

"Yeah. I know that. Heck. What do we do?" Scorpion cursed.

"Let's make some good sales out there and build up their frustrations."

"Okay, boys… Deal with your stuff, we'll deal with ours." Viper smiled.

"That is so true, Viper – sama." Bella added.

"Just remember to erase all trails before leaving and coming back."

"Our safety is more important that your weird "hobbies"." Vulture added.

"Alright, Mr. Sadist." Bella smirked.

"Grftjx!" Vulture grumbled.

19:27 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Here's the place…"

"They must be about to come, I guess."

Netto and Saito walked into the plaza where the theater was located at: people could be seen making queues to get their tickets.

"Luckily we booked the entrances online."

"Sure."

"Hello!"

"Good evening!"

Meiru walked towards them.

She sported a greenish vest over a white t-shirt, a knee-long white skirt, stockings and black heeled shoes.

Roll, using her avatar program, had picked a pink vest over a black t-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

She had tied her hail in a neat ponytail.

"You're the type who likes to remember the good ol' times, huh?" Netto commented to her

"That's how you greet a girl? I'd thought your mother would have taught you about this stuff by now!" Meiru grumbled.

"Please don't involve Mama into this."

"They're like magnets, eh, Saito – kun?" Roll told him.

"Yup. You picked an original mix, Roll – chan." Saito smiled.

"Let's go in, then." Meiru coolly told Netto.

"Go ahead." Netto dully replied.

Saito and Roll either chuckled or giggled under their breaths upon seeing how those behaved but failed to see a man spying on them from close by.

_Heh, heh, heh._

This man could be about a meter and eighty tall or a bit taller.

He had a black suit over a white shirt, a black tie and pants along with shoes.

Other clothing included a gray trench coat and a black hat.

His hair was blonde and his eyes' irises were green emerald too.

_Surprise, surprise._

He glanced at a young man standing not so far from his location and leaning his back against a column while apparently reading a brochure about a film.

This young man could be about a meter and sixty tall or maybe a bit taller.

His hair was jet black and he had green emerald irises.

He simply wore a sleeveless black t-shirt and brown shorts: he had white sneakers on too.

"… Penny to dime… Do you copy? Over."

"Over. I've got the translation software on."

"Just listen in and mix with the crowds: I'm going to stage a ruckus somewhere else to divert attention… Don't do any suspicious gestures right now and continue on reading the brochure… You never know if the "Committee" watchdogs are close by…"

"Roger, Mr. Penny. By the way! Testing out the new garden watering system was worth the effort invested on it: the system worked."

"Of course it did: go into radio silence and don't contact me. I'll be the one contacting you. Over."

The main man slipped into the crowds and then walked out of the square yet he caught the attention of a businessman who eyed them.

"That man… Twilight? No way. Gotta be a lookalike… Let's go, On Air…"

19:41 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Thor was an imbecile, my lord. I shall do a more efficient job."

A figure hidden by the shade was kneeling in front of the tall and imposing figure.

"Hum! What do you have in mind?" The commanding figure questioned.

"I can create the battlefield which they envision in nightmares and always pray not to have to fight in… It would give me a tremendous advantage and a nightmare to them." The kneeling figure replied.

"Oho! I like the way you think… Do exploit their nightmares! You have my consent with one condition: don't allow them to trace you back here. And, if you fail, the same punishment I inflicted into Thor awaits you. Do you understand me?" The figure sounded satisfied at first only to change to a menacing tone afterwards.

"Please do leave it up to me."

"Good… Go and make sure Thor hasn't tried to escape his punishment: he can be rebellious from time to time."

"Roger, my Lord."

"Heh, heh, heh! Heh, heh, heh…"

"Is that Thor?"

"No, my Lord. The voice doesn't match unless he's modulating it into another frequency to alter it."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA GODS HIT ZA HEAVENS!"

"What was THAT?"

"I d-don't know, my Lord."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA HELLS HIT ZA DEMONS!"

"Huh… The signature's gone, my Lord… I will investigate what it was."

"Do that NOW. How could anyone locate us? Che."

21:12 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Can't say it was a really bad film. But it was way too _clichéd_."

"Why are you always saying everything is _clichéd_?"

"'Cause it is."

"You jerk!"

Netto had been voicing his opinion of the film when Meiru had started to snap at him and now they were discussing again.

"Cut it out, you two… You look like a couple on the verge of divorce." Saito told them.

"WHO TOLD YA TO SAY SUCH UNNECESSARY STUFF, HUH?" Both Meiru and Netto yelled at Saito.

Saito rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat while Roll giggled aloud.

"You really can agree on things when you want to!" She commented.

"Hmpf!"

"Hmpf!"

Both folded their arms, closed their eyes and looked away from each other, playing the offended.

"Let's get home… We've got a busy week ahead of us." Saito suggested.

"Yeah. I can't stand this _clichéd_ perfume any more. See ya, TV ad model."

"YOU SILLY DUMBASSS!"

Netto played deaf while he and Saito walked off: Meiru waved a fist towards it while Roll was hardly muffling her giggle.

"Let's pick a taxi and get back home! Why, the nerve of that guy…! I'll plot something!" Meiru hissed.

"With Yaito – san?"

"Yeah! She'll help me out! _Girl's power!_ _Girl's adventure_! _Girl's plot_! Hah!"

21:49 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Man! I'm tired. Let's hit the sack."

"Yup. We've got a busy week ahead of us."

The twins had already changed into pajamas and were getting ready to hit the sack when Netto's Link PET suddenly rang.

"If the caller is Meiru – chan then cut it off. I'm gonna talk with her tomorrow." Netto told Sigma.

"Uh… Sorry. But it's an encrypted call… And this protocol looks like it's not civilian…" Sigma announced with some surprise.

"… Could it be the Desert Wraiths wanting to creep the hell outta us?"

"Patch it through. We're gonna teach 'em one or two things. And show 'em we're not scared of them."

"Blood! Go check the firewalls just in case." Sigma told him.

"OK."

"… A wise man once said: "To get to the target circle around it and approach it from an unexpected direction." … Whaddya think?" A woman's voice replied.

"… You must be Viper."

"Oh! My! You're quite sharp, aren't cha?" Viper teased.

"If you were planning on spooking us then it won't work. And we've got the means to deal with your idiotic robots or "Dimensional Converters" to begin with." Netto shot back.

"And what has Rock Man have to say 'bout this?" Another voice giggled.

"You're fired along with Bert Saxby, Bella." Saito told her.

"Oh? Bert Saxby, cha say~? We'll look into it: thanks for the info." Bella giggled.

"Grrr… Go to Laos." Sigma told them while grumbling out of annoyance.

"Laos? Why not? They say they have nice tourist spots." Viper laughed.

"However! One of these days you shall know what THE Art means…" Bella announced in a sinister tone of voice.

"Where have I heard that before…? Ah! One of the FOD was saying it around… Was that girl trained by you two or what?" Saito questioned.

"We know that the Operator you have and his brother saw what was inside of that person's room… And, afterwards, they set fire to it… Did they ever tell you?" Bella teased.

"… They did. But I have a memory locking system. That memory can't ever come out." Saito replied in an icy voice.

"Heh, heh, heh! Just that you know… What Vulture and Cobra do doesn't matter… Naughty boys will always be naughty boys." Bella giggled.

"Will you be able to keep on with this teaser?" Viper laughed as well.

"We will. And now go to Hell with an elevator." Netto coolly shot back.

"Do I screw them?" Sigma asked.

"Yeah. Get rid of them." Saito confirmed.

Sigma interrupted the connection and grumbled something.

"There's nothing weird with the firewalls and I don't detect anything weird outside of the house, either." Blood Shadow reported.

"I guess they were just planning on toying with us verbally." Saito grumbled.

"Let's go sleep and lock our memories of this by bringing up the film."

"I like that plan. Good night, guys."

"Mwah, hah, hah… Night of nocturnal Robins and Bat-men and Bat-girls and Bat-women…"

"Jeez." Blood Shadow complained.

The twins and Blood Shadow sighed while Sigma chuckled…

06:06 AM (Utah Time)…

"… Hmmm… I have detected a faint presence moving through the "Past Tunnel"… What or who is it? I should research into it… How could they figure it out?"

A Net Navi was floating inside of a Cyber World designed to recreate outer space.

He looked about a meter and eighty tall and bronze was the main color of his body with some white spots.

The drawing of a planet was engraved on his helmet's forehead.

His eyes' irises were purple and looked calm.

He had two triangular wings (currently folded) with grooves drawn on it and colored bronze.

These same grooves repeated on the rest of his body.

He didn't have any emblems on his chest or in the helmet's ear pads

He was currently examining some kind of graphic with some alien glyphs written around it.

"Hmmm… Something does tell me that someone has discovered how to properly use this Time-Space distortion… I, Xon' Edos, by the will of my makers, shall find out whom is it…"

He brought up imagery of a "tunnel" extending somewhere which had a main reddish background with huge irregular metallic gray pieces rotating anti-clockwise along the walls: a bright round spot was set on the "bottom" of it while the "top" had an opening leading to somewhere else: he was able to see a figure hidden by some kind of blackish energy mass flying towards a mass of energy close to the end of the "tunnel" and "diving" inside of it to vanish: the Navi brought the right hand to his chin and lifted his eyebrows.

"Suspicious, truly. Maybe they're sending scouts to test out if it is possible to travel across the "Past Tunnel"…? Intriguing. Truly. Heh, heh, heh."


	5. Chapter 5: Nightmarish battlefield

a problem."

Blues and Search Man were talking while walking down an Internet City avenue: they looked in a good mood.

"Well. I'll try to make Enzan – sama admit if he had those manias on mind or not. Then we could talk it over. But I think they don't mind too much by now, or so I believe…" Blues told Search Man.

"Good. Let's think carefully about it." Search Man replied.

Their emergency lines suddenly opened and Meijin's face appeared onscreen.

"Blues! Search Man! We have an emergency!"

"What is it?" Blues asked.

"The Densan Aquarium is being attacked by Viruses! You should rush to the scene before it spreads!" Meijin informed.

"Roger, Meijin!" Enzan confirmed.

"We're on our way, Mr. Glassy!" Laika added with a broad grin.

They'd both finished the transmission before Meijin could comment anything.

"Mr. Glassy…? Where did they get the idea from?" He wondered.

"From cha glasses, Mei – jin – chan!"

"Urudo!"

"Meijin – chan's glasses have Hugo Boss perfume sprayed into them! Heh, heh, heh! Come admire and smell them forever and ever and never!"

10:09 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Here it is!"

"Let's go!"

An IPC limo braked in front of the Densan Aquarium and both Net Saviors ran towards there while displaying their badges to the policemen in charge of cordoning the area off.

"The Net Saviors!" Enzan announced.

"Let us in!"

"Roger!"

They entered the control center and spotted all equipment frizzling and going berserk.

"Plug In! Blues, Transmission!"

"Plug In! Search Man, Transmission!"

Both Navis landed in one of several round platforms floating over the pools containing Cyber fishes: several Aquatic – type Viruses were wrecking havoc along with traditional Mettools.

"… I'd recommend not using Electric – type attacks. Everything is soaked and we don't want to fry the Cyber fishes for supper." Search Man suggested.

"That's a good pun!" Laika smiled.

"Ugh. I'd rather have _sushi_ instead of grilled fish." Enzan grumbled.

"What course of action do you suggest, Enzan – sama?"

"Let's go for the old "chop – 'em – all" strategy."

"Search Man: use the Prism Combo." Laika instructed.

"Roger!"

"Roger!"

"Battle Chip, Neo Variable Sword! Slot In!"

"Battle Chip, Freeze Bullet, Prism! Double Slot In!"

Blues drew the Neo Variable Sword while Search Man changed to Freeze Bullet mode and threw a Prism into the air.

"Battle Chip, Dream Aura!" Enzan announced.

"Sonic Boom!"

Blues shot the typical slice of energy forward while hitting and slicing some Viruses thus deleting them.

"More, more and more~!"

Search Man charged up the Freeze Bullet and shot it at the Prism, causing its effect to multiply and spread all around the area, hitting all hovering Viruses: they all became ice statues.

"… Chance to make _sushi_…" Laika joked.

"Jeez."

"Sonic Boom!"

"Scope Gun!"

Blues shot another energy slice while Search Man switched back to normal ammunition and hit the Prism again: the reflected shots easily destroyed the frozen Viruses while Blues did the same with his attack.

"… I no longer detect any Virus signature." Search Man reported.

"Phew! We managed to solve this."

"That's what you think: you herd of fools!" A rough voice rang out close by.

A figure jumped out of one pool and hovered above the water.

They were a tall Net Navi, around a meter and ninety tall.

His face was largely hidden by black shades, and he had a large blackish beard: their skin color was "human" too.

His ear pads were empty and black and he had an octahedron-shaped yellow jewel on his helmet's forehead.

They wore a greenish bodysuit with brown coiling and crossing patterns painted over the arms' length (his shoulders were anatomically correct) and which stopped before the forearms, colored silver.

Three arrow-like extensions came out from behind his shoulders and reached all the way to the floor.

His emblem was a set of runic symbols painted silver and set against a black background.

The legs' surface had those same patterns drawn over them and the boots were colored green.

He carried a trident weapon on his right hand and a round wooden shield on his left hand.

"My name is Njord! Feel the terror of the oceans!"

"Njord… Nordic God of the seas…" Blues muttered.

"And he lured us to a place where he would Field Power Bonus."

"That's right, you herd of fools! I shall make you experience the battlefield which every warrior in the world is afraid of - the ocean!"

"Crap." Blues hissed.

"He tricked us." Search Man cursed.

"Raise, ocean! Stir your inner rage! Let it surface! Drown all fools into your infinite depths! Swallow the Land and claim that territory for your mightiness!" Njord chanted as he raised his trident.

Gigantic _tsunami_ – like waves formed and washed the two Net Saviors into the depths of the pool which was filled with several platforms: the ground was irregular and had some weeds on it as well: Njord quickly appeared before them and aimed his trident at them.

"Ocean's Rage!"

Underwater currents formed all of a sudden: they started to remove several layers of the ocean floor and making the visibility fall down to almost zero visibility: the currents were pushing both Net Saviors back.

"Where is he?" Blues demanded.

"… Three o' clock!" Search Man announced.

"Sonic Boom!"

Blues shot the energy slice in that direction and heard a metallic sound before the slice was shot back towards them.

"Dodge!"

Both of them barely jumped out of the way and ducked to avoid the deflected attack.

"Prongs of the Ocean!"

"GRAH!"

Search Man suddenly felt how three prongs were stabbed into his chest armor: the armor held on, but the hit forced him to recoil.

"Scope Gun!"

"Useless!"

The shot was deflected back at Search Man, who was pushed back again.

"Blues! That shield of his deflects attacks! Do something about it or we won't progress!"

"Roger!"

"But… How can a wooden shield work underwater? Unless… Ah! But of course… It's designed to _look_ like wood, but it must be metallic… Let's try something else…" Enzan muttered.

"Whatever you want to try… Do it quick before he gets at us and pushes us into a corner." Laika pressed.

"Battle Chip, Area Steal! Slot In!"

Blues warped towards the spot Njord was at but Njord brought out his shield.

"Such a petty trick will not work against me!" He proclaimed.

However, instead of blocking Blues' sword, something attached itself to the shield and some beeps began to sound close by.

"What? It cannot be that you…!"

There was an explosion followed by a roar and a shockwave: Blues took the chance to hit Njord's upper torso and break up some kind of device he'd attached.

"What was that?" Blues wondered.

"Dunno. Maybe it's a device to cheat at slot machines."

"Swallow Man."

Swallow Man's 3D image had formed there and was chuckling as the sea currents suddenly died and the dust began to settle down: the visibility was still rather poor, but at least they weren't being pushed back.

"Ah! He was using a remote to hijack the water circulation system and cause these currents!" Blues realized.

"We should try to get out of this turf, though." Search Man suggested.

Both nodded and began to swim upwards by getting a hold of some weeds on the walls.

"You shall not escape!" Njord roared.

He was swimming at a mad speed towards them: Search Man merely aimed his Scope Gun at him.

"Freeze Bullet!"

He shot and hit Njord' right foot. It became ice and he was turned upside down as the ice began to float upwards towards the surface.

"Grah!"

Both Net Saviors kept on climbing up until they broke through the surface of the pool and climbed into the shore: they could see Njord's right frozen foot floating over the surface.

"How clever!"

Njord's right arm came out of the water and hit it with the trident, shattering it: he jumped out of the water and floated above it using some jets on his boots.

"Get ready!"

He scanned the terrain but found no trace of both Net Saviors.

"Where are they?" He muttered aloud.

"Scope Gun!"

"Sonic Boom!"

The two reflected attacks rained down on Njord, who roared from the over exposition to the attacks' energy: he'd attained several wounds and looked in a rather bad state when the light cleared.

"You lowlifes… I shall… be back… and then I… shall drown you lowlifes…!"

Both Net Saviors sighed in relief as they landed on the rim of the pool and Swallow Man appeared in front of them.

"Heh! How frail!"

"Oh yeah?" Enzan shot back.

"I'd rather say Twilight's afraid of catching a cold."

"You fool! Twilight – sama is above mortal disease!"

"And above stock markets…?" Blues sarcastically taunted.

"Guess that." Search Man shrugged.

"Hmpf! Laugh while you can."

He flew out laughing as both Net Saviors grumbled under their breath…

09:29 AM (Mongolia Time)…

"… WHAT? Another showed up?"

"Yeah, Meta."

Scorpion had just briefed Meta on what had transcended.

"Bloody them! When we want to do something in a moment when the guard is low, they have to show up and raise the guard again!" Meta cursed while banging the desk with both fists.

"Yeah. But _what_ can we do? Not even the Net Police can track them. I know: they can't track us either but this means that the one behind them is one hell of a fox." Scorpion shrugged.

"Vulture! I have a mission for you!" Meta announced.

"Command me, Meta – sama." Vulture saluted.

"Go snoop around the Reverse Cyber World… Beware of not bumping into Zero. Try to find out any possible trail or rumor."

"Cobra! Go with him. If Zero is roaming around then… Between you two you should be able to overwhelm him."

"Roger, Scorpion – sama."

Meta kept on fuming while Scorpion was seemingly thinking about the whole deal.

_Is it me or does everything amount to a stalling strategy?_

"Hiya~… Bad boys. Another bad boy showed up?" Viper joked as she came in while humming a tune.

"Viper. Where'd you go off to today?" Cobra demanded.

"Dunno. Maybe to Stockholm."

"Don't kid us. You can't have gone all the way to Sweden."

"Who knows? Maybe I went there or maybe I went to Beijing. Tee, heh, heh. I move and not move and go and not go~… Tee, heh, heh."

10:55 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So?"

"No dice."

Vulture had rendezvoused with Cobra in a section of the Reverse Cyber World: neither of them had found anything useful.

"Found you." A voice announced.

Both gasped and looked behind one floating circuitry piece to see Zero coming out from behind it, sword already drawn.

"Damn! It's Zero!" Cobra cursed.

"Let's fight back!" Vulture rallied.

Both of them drew Long Sword Battle Chips and assumed combat positions.

"Hmpf. Amateurs."

Zero moved his Z – Saber up, down, left and right, and produced four energy slices which moved towards the two Navis at a quick speed: both tried to block or hold them with their Long Swords but they were broken and the attacks hit them fully.

"Damn! He's being serious!" Cobra hissed.

"And we thought it was just the Sub Space guys the ones who were hard to deal with!" Vulture hissed as well.

"Hmpf. You lowlifes wouldn't guess it. I spar with Omega from time to time. I always keep my blade sharp." Zero announced.

"Fang Machinegun!"

"Death Claws!"

Cobra drew something similar to the Super Vulcan Battle Chip but having purple snake – like patterns on it and began to shoot it towards Zero.

"Eat these!"

Vulture drew two claws which looked menacing around and jumped towards Zero from behind.

"Die!"

Zero suddenly became transparent and disappeared to reappear one meter higher: Vulture barely dodged Cobra's string of shots by jumping to the left.

"Gah! Let's scram!" Cobra hissed.

Vulture nodded in approval and took out a flash bang grenade: he tossed it into the air and a white flash filled the area.

"Hmpf."

Neither of them were anywhere to be seen when the bright flash vanished so Zero lowered his blade.

"Hmpf. You're a bunch of show – offs, weaklings and amateurs. That's what you are, vermin." He muttered.

He heard a sound and spotted a bubble of white energy forming along with some ripples of energy the colors of which were shifting: an image of Zero standing inside of a room somewhere facing "CF" Netto and "CF" Blues formed there and they looked younger: someone's else presence could be hinted behind the "other" Zero but they weren't visible.

"A "Past Vision"…?"

"… _Zero! Defeat these guys!_"

"… _I… I'm…"_

"_Ah! Zero spoke!" _"CF" Netto gasped.

"_What are you doing, Zero? Didn't you listen to the great me's orders?" _A man questioned.

"_I'm…"_

"_What's wrong, Zero? You're the ultimate tool I created! If you just stayed quiet and did what the great me order then it'd be fine!"_

"That voice… The "Professor"… Guess that's when I began to gain my own will…" Zero muttered.

"_I'm not your "tool"_!"

"_W-what'd you say?_"

"_I move by my will! I'm not your "tool"!_"

"_Huh… Hah, hah! Hah, hah! Will? Will, you say? A mere Virus like you lowlife has a "will", you say?"_

"_What? He's not a Navi?"_ "CF" Blues wondered.

"Guess they didn't know it yet."

The "other" Zero, after having faced the "Professor", turned around and walked past the "Net Saviors" to stop giving them back a few paces past their location: they glanced towards him.

"_True. I'm Zero. Zero Virus."_

"_So you were a Virus?"_ "CF" Netto gasped.

The "other" Zero dematerialized all of a sudden and the "Professor" gasped as he seemingly took a step forward.

"_Oi, Zero! Zero! Ngh!"_

Both "Net Saviors" turned around to face the guy but since he was off-screen he couldn't be properly seen.

"_There's no place to run to, "Professor"!"_ "CF" Netto exclaimed.

"_Guess you'll have to give up!_" "CF" Blues challenged.

"_Kuah! Huh…!_"

Alarms rang out as the "Past Vision" bubble seemed to begin to shrink.

"_The regeneration machine…!_"

The bubble shrank further and vanished with a bright flash.

"Hum. Can't say it wasn't interesting… Let's go tell Vadous."

11:05 AM (Japan Time)…

"… You're up to something."

"Don't tell me."

It was break time at the institute: Netto had stayed on the classroom and was reading one of his _manga_ books when Meiru had appeared in front of him with a rather suspicious face.

"Are you still mad by our clashing yesterday?"

"No. Something is going on below the surface."

"You mean to say either the Desert Wraits or those two Navis? Or do you mean Twilight?" Netto assumed next.

"No. I believe you're up to something."

"Sorry. But unless you're a bit more specific, I don't get your point."

"Well then… Why do you disappear almost every Saturday morning expect when we have important exams or a lot of homework to do? I don't think that's related to being a Net Savior." Meiru told him.

"Need Not To Know." Netto automatically replied in a dull and dry tone of voice.

"… Oi. Is this a spy movie or what? That wasn't funny to begin with, Netto!" Meiru sounded annoyed by now.

"No. This is reality."

"You've seen that "Matrix" film way too many times." She fumed and looked annoyed.

"This has nothing to do with cinema. We have extra scholar activities like any student..."

"You stopped doing self-defense almost two years ago."

"That's because the teacher had to retire."

"… Who are you working for?" Meiru questioned.

"That doesn't make sense. I'm just a Net Savior."

"Well then… Who are the people in those cars which are always trailing you guys around?" Meiru questioned.

"Net Police. We've been abducted more than once, just that you know it and you _do _now that. They're for safety. And let me remind you what happened in October."

Meiru gasped and looked afraid by Netto's reply.

"Ah… Hum… I'll go back to my post." She muttered.

Netto sighed and rolled his eyes.

_Girls… I can't understand them. That's why I never believed in the "boyfriend – girlfriend" thing… I rather prefer having fun with either Tooru - kun, Laika or Enzan. That's all. _

"Yo."

"Ah! Arushi Masuko. What's up?"

"Nothing. I thought I'd drop to say hi."

A new student appeared.

He was about Netto and Saito's height and had brown hair along with sky blue irises.

"Arushi – kun! You wouldn't happen to have a girlfriend, right?"

"Huh? Eh… No, Sakurai – san…"

"Good…" Meiru looked in a better mood by now.

"Huh? Why's that good? Oi! Wait a minute! You don't intend to…"

"Tee, heh, heh. Kidding, kidding. Just beware of leeches."

"Leeches? Guess that but I don't think there any swamps around here."

"Don't mind, Meiru – chan, Arushi. She has these moods."

"Guess that. I'll be on my way… _See ya_!"

11:19 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Huff! I'm fed up."

"No wonder."

Martin was walking down an avenue and glancing over his shoulder from time to time: he stopped in a crossroad area and rolled his eyes, apparently irritated with something.

"Lander. Is the leech still after us?" He asked.

"Yeah. What do we do?" Lander replied before asking.

"Let's end this farce." Martin grumbled.

He walked back the way he'd come and entered a side alley and spotted Ursula leaning her back against the wall.

"Ursula! Stop being a leech. Stalking me won't lead you to the Desert Wraiths." He grumbled.

"Oh? Who knows?" Ursula teased.

"You do, Ms. Commander. Now please be a respectable Air Force Officer and present your evidence for suspecting me and written proof that you have been authorized to do this by the Pentagon." Martin dully replied with obvious sarcasm.

"My, my! You have some mood, don't cha? You used to have it back when you were at the SAS as well…" Ursula grinned.

"Don't bring up the SAS. I only got there 'cause you used your daddy's influence to pull me there. And why did you bother so much? 'Cause my family and yours used to be enemies on the 18th century. "Keep your enemy in a place where you can see him"… You were going by that policy, huh? Sorry. But ever since WWII my family forgot about the stupid quarrelling over five square miles of terrain which was the reason of conflict with your family. Your acts had no sense. Even your daddy admitted it and allowed me to leave 'cause I'd been _forced_ into the unit."

"Yeah. I remember that all-too-well." Lander grumbled.

"And since the SAS normally only operate on King Land and you wanted to play Ms. Stalker, you switched to the Air Force, became a Commander and transferred to Okinawa Army Base 'cause you knew I'd drop by here one of these days, isn't that right?" Martin exposed in a rather frustrated tone of voice.

"Bravo. You could be a P. R. man, you know." Ursula clapped in a mock applause.

"My point is: your actions are illogical unless you're in truth a leech waiting to suck the blood outta me." Martin told her.

"Well said, Martin!" Lander laughed.

"Tsk. Whatever. One of these days you shall realize it, cutie." Ursule smirked and giggled under her breath.

"At least I got rid of your persistent stalking… I'm off." Martin grumbled and rolled his eyes.

"Just that ye know: the _Sheriff_ is gonna send ya all the way to Arizona!"

"Che! Hmmm!" Ursula looked annoyed.

"If you try anything else, I'll go and speak with your daddy. This has gone off-limits." Martin warned.

Ursula turned white and ran away while Martin sighed in defeat while rolling his eyes.

"Hum! The former warrior will get rusted by the time the next campaign begins and will be beheaded by the enemy's blades?"

"Yamato Man. Go teach those guys out there Sun Tzu's _Art of War_ and all of its subtleness and details."

Yamato Man had formed a 3D image there and chuckled but Martin directed a dry look at the guy.

"Let us go! Takeda Shigen leads us! To victory! To booty! Heh, heh, heh!"

"What a bunch of jerks. Let's forget about them and go home, Martin."

16:48 PM (Japan Time)…

".. Phew! Home, sweet home…"

"Your day was hard, huh?"

Nelaus reached his housed and sat down on the sofa, tired: Isaac was projecting with the hologram and floating above Nelaus' right shoulder with a smile on his face.

"By the way… Omega sent a mail. He suspects who's bossing those two guys." Isaac announced.

"Who is?" Nelaus asked.

"It must be a Navi named _Odin_." Isaac replied.

"Odin…? Wasn't he the ruler of the Valhalla in Norse mythology? The _Valkyries_ carry the _Einhenjar_ or fallen warriors there upon their demise by riding upon the rainbow bridge _Bifrost_… And isn't Thor Odin's son?"

"Yeah. And that Njord guy was in a sub-category so it means that Odin bossed him. I suppose that the one who really has control over the _Valkyries_ is this Odin guy." Isaac replied.

"What else does Omega say?"

"He suspects the three of them are stalling for something. Maybe they hope to wear us out by pitting us against the Desert Wraiths."

"Stalling… Wait… It couldn't be!" Nelaus suddenly gasped.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"It would explain it… Why there was the data for an extra Navi which was apparently never built… That Navi is Odin, but… Then, it would mean that…! Now I realize it…!" Nelaus began to mutter aloud.

"Somebody care to fill me in?" Isaac rolled his eyes.

"… _That guy_." Nelaus merely replied in an icy voice.

"Whoa! Don't give me those creeps! Whom do you mean to say?"

"… That goon deluded by a no-longer-existing system. And it's not _ex-senpai_."

"You mean…!"

"Yeah. That guy's alive." Nelaus made a grimace.

"B-but our finishing attack should've…!" Isaac protested.

"That guy could've switched for a dummy or something. When I do that attack… I cannot see my surroundings and I have to rely on instinct and on the gravity field keeping the target still. However… That guy was badly damaged. I guess that guy's stalling to fully recover and come after us again." Nelaus exposed.

"… Then we will have to take him down for good." Isaac summarized.

"Yeah. This is _our_ battle. And that goon will soon realize that his desperate backups have been in vain." Nelaus icily announced.

"Yeah. It's about time we purged those bothersome leftovers of Japan's underground crime empire… It's been destroyed. And it won't ever rise again." Isaac nodded in agreement.

"Be prepared… Because I'm so gonna defeat you this time!" Nelaus muttered.

TCHAC!

"What in the… The freak!"

"Fuck."

A knife fell from the ceiling and hit the sofa getting stabbed there: a rolled paper hung from the hilt using a string and the "Talon" was attached to the ceiling: they vanished with a bright purple flash and Nelaus grumbled as he opened the paper.

"What? There's just one word. Iegpab. A joke from Twilight. I'll burn this thing: and I don't care about his clown-like behavior."

"Yeah. Let's tell the guy he's getting rusty and dull already."

17:57 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… So… How did we do it this time, Master? That guy, Hikawa… He didn't have a chip implant or internal nanomachines, right?"

"Oh. But now he has. I implanted those into him but he'll surely never notice they're there unless he has to undergo brain surgery or get his skull checked by X-ray… And you don't notice the nanomachines: unless he had to go to the hospital and get checked it won't be noticed…"

"I see. That device was really interesting. I'd tried it myself too."

"Good, Darth Bapgei… Did you deliver the note?"

"Of course."

"Heh. And the irony is that he'll dispose of it without ever realizing what it meant… I'm so subtle."

The young man from the other day was speaking with Twilight (who'd taken off the coat and the hat) in the living room of a house somewhere: both looked amused as they checked info on a laptop.

"So "G" is alive, according to them… It could be. And he could be the one behind those 3 punks. Neo-punks. Hah, hah, hah."

"Guess that."

"Philip! Don't make that face like you're fed up with life."

"Sorry, Master. But your humor doesn't seem to impress me as of late."

"Did you see the "Past Vision"? They better hope nothing like what happened in that "other" Time – Space happens… That is: that there's an accident and something crossed over Time – Space to here… Heh."

"Yikes."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA VIZION HIT ZA PAZT!"

"Cloud Man. What's with the "z" instead of the "s"?" Swallow Man asked.

"Dunno." Cloud Man laughed.

"Huff." Cosmo Man was annoyed already.

"This guy…" Zoan Gate Man complained.

"They never learn their lesson." Yamato Man fumed.

"Shut up." Freeze Man snapped.

"Yikes."

"Speaking of "Past"… Do we know something else about that mysterious biker who uses dummy weapons when storming into "clubs" using the bike along with a huge and bulky Security Navi?" Philip asked.

"Ah! I hadn't been paying attention to them. True: someone named "Priest" commands them… And I guess they're somewhere overseas: I've got that hunch…" Twilight rubbed his chin.

"By the way! The other day… Two women came over… Can I know who they were or…?"

"Ms. Viper and Ms. Bella."

"E~H? Master contacted the Desert Wraiths?"

"The _real_ Desert Wraiths are those two guys and their Navis. Those two seek another goal. They've got an interesting goal in mind. They need advice of how to handle it in a manner so that their "companions" wouldn't get a hold of it… I've been working on it and I think I've got some ideas… I always have two or three trumps up my sleeves."

"Interesting."

"And thrilling bodying…!" Cloud Man attempted a silly rhyme.

Everyone directed annoyed glares at him so his 3D image vanished and a streak of energy travelled across the circuitry boards' pathways until it was out of sight.

"Well, "G"… Let's see if you're still worth IQ – sama's interest… If not then you'll just vanish away… You had a role and it expired… Heh, heh, heh."

"Scary, scary~… Things are gonna rush up from now on. Heh, heh, heh…"


	6. Chapter 6: Useful minions

**Chapter 6: Useful minions**

16:57 PM (Japan Time), Friday March the 13th …

"… Weird."

"What's weird?"

Netto had come into the bedroom carrying a large envelope: Saito had looked up from his book, surprised.

"I received _this_ via post mail…"

Netto took out a small yellow-colored plastic wristband with the words "DENSAN MANIACS" written on its surface.

"… But the sender's tag is blank. Do you think it's a prank?" Netto finished.

"Hmmm… What day is today again…? March the 13th… We're rather far from April's Fools…" Saito replied after looking at the wall's calendar.

"Do you think something so thin and small could have some deadly trick hidden on it?"

"Lemme have a look." Saito requested.

"Sure."

Saito picked it, tested its elasticity, looked at it from all angles and didn't see anything weird: the band had two cylinder-like forms on the top and the underside of it but it looked like a totally vulgar wristband.

"I don't see any harm on it, really." Saito concluded.

"I guess I'll sport it a bit to see if it fits…"

He put it on and decided it fitted him rather well: he looked at the bathroom's mirror and it seemed to be rather good.

"Let's get working on the homework." Netto suggested after walking back into the bedroom.

"Sure. We're making progress, so… We'll have it ready by tomorrow at the very least, I'd rather guess."

05:07 AM (Bermuda Time)…

"… Ah. So here's the place, Miyabi."

"Correct."

"Talk about some destruction. Guess Break Man and Nam Kaerb were busy in here."

"Jeez. Stop with your jokes."

"Heh, heh, heh, heh."

Shadow Man dashed across the remaining pieces of a largely destroyed system: the surroundings were gray and almost everything was destroyed or fried to a crisp: it looked about to collapse any second now given the large cracks and chasms which filled it but that didn't stop him from improving jokes on the spot.

"Well… I don't see any salvageable data in here, Miyabi." He reported.

"Yet… An anonymous source claimed that the Desert Wraiths forgot to pick up some info and we should try to claim it before they do." Dark Miyabi calmly replied.

"Hmmm… It's hard to believe that anything could have survived the massive amount of EMP radiation which blew this up almost half a year ago…" Shadow Man commented next.

He suddenly heard a sound like water drops hitting a surface so he turned around and gasped.

"What!"

Behind him, and at a lower elevation, there was a puddle of a pitch-black colored substance.

A kind of rift had opened in the "sky" above the spot and large patches of the substance were falling and accumulating into a large puddle.

"What the hell is that?" Shadow Man demanded to no – one in particular.

"Dunno." Miyabi admitted.

The puddle suddenly began to compact and assumed a vaguely humanoid form, although the main body was shaped like an irregular spheroid.

This new "form" had two arms and legs and its body had spheroid-like shape to it.

The "form" contained one red eye in the front with some green line patterns spreading from atop it and around its sides.

The thing seemed to be almost two meters tall.

"I don't like the looks of that thing, Miyabi." He reported.

"I don't, either. Let's try to take it down."

The "monster" suddenly melted back into the puddle and became a set of rectangular blocks, sixteen in total: they shot towards Shadow Man from different directions and angles.

"Shadow Clone!"

Shadow Man summoned a set of copies: the blocks hit all of them while Shadow Man jumped into the air and shot various _shuriken _at them: most of them passed through the blocks while one made a distinct sound of metal hitting against metal and got stuck.

"Hmmm… Weird. Evil Source!"

He shot several spheres of fire at the blocks, but they quickly dissolved into the puddle and assumed the shape of two hands, one of them containing the red eye on its palm.

"It's a shape-shifter, then?" Shadow Man assumed.

The two hands tried to clasp Shadow Man, but there was a cloud of smoke and a log appeared on his place.

"Eat these!"

He shot several more _shuriken_ at the hands, and, again, one of them hit something metallic and got stuck.

"There's something metallic inside of this thing." Shadow Man concluded.

"Hmmm… Maybe it's some kind of core?" Miyabi suggested.

"It'd make sense. You need something to coordinate these things and make them shift shapes."

The "monster" assumed its standard form again and shot spheres of fire from the "eye": Shadow Man skillfully dodged them and jumped towards the "eye".

"Hra~h… HUH!"

The "eye" suddenly closed and dissolved back in the puddle, leaving a faint green silhouette of its form standing there.

"This thing is beginning to annoy me." Shadow Man grumbled.

"Hmmm… Let's try electrical weapons on it." Miyabi suggested.

"Sure, why not? This place is about to collapse, anyway."

"Battle Chip, Thunder Ball. Slot In." Miyabi announced.

Shadow Man drew the electrical weapon and charged it up: he shot it towards the center of the puddle and hit something: that something started to frizzle.

"Battle Chip, Mag Bolt. Slot In." Miyabi announced next.

Shadow Man drew a magnet extension and pulled something metallic towards him.

"This is it?"

The object was a small metallic spheroid colored metallic gray which was barely one meter tall and half a meter wide: it had the red eye on it and some of the blackish substance was still attached to its body.

"My guess was right, then. This _is_ the core of this thing."

"Let's destroy it." Miyabi suggested.

Shadow Man tossed it into the air and quickly sliced it in half using his _katana_: the two halves fell into the ground and frizzled.

"Had enough?"

It suddenly detonated and blew up: the puddle changed to a greenish-like pool of acids and dissolved thus leaving only a chunk of corroded terrain behind.

"I didn't like the looks of that thing at all… Something tells me we were drawn here to be forced into a field testing of this thing…" Shadow Man commented.

"That sounds likely. I'd rather scram before they pull another of those onto us."

"Roger."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA ZHADOW HIT ZA ZWORD!"

"Cloud Man, huh."

Cloud Man appeared there with his classical open arms pose and his cocky grin: Shadow Man was far from impressed.

"Guess that thing's worth it." Cloud Man grinned.

"Dunno. It appeals as rotten to me. A rotten corpse."

"Heh, heh, heh. Got some humor there, eh?"

"Maybe. Did you know that Thunderbolt Man and Thunderstorm Man are going to degrade you in the next DC Comics publication, _The Thunder Mighty Duo_?"

"NO WAY! Thunder Man, Magnet Man and Elec Man had their chances to shine and wasted them up: I'm the only one who's worth it!"

"Then go complain."

"Che! Those fools! They'll get to know the extent of my bad moods yet!"

Cloud Man's 3D image vanished and he travelled across the circuitry again to flee while Shadow Man sheathed the _katana_.

"Time to pull outta here… Let's go, my step-brother… Heh, heh, heh, heh."

17:19 PM (Japan Time)…

"… A black and moving monster, you say? A _Shadow Devil_."

"That's their name, then?"

Miyabi was talking with Nelaus over the Link PET.

"Yeah. Back when the FOD affair… Hikari and I got to face one of those. They're basically an army of nanomachines producing this substance and being coordinated by the core to assume any shape as long as there are enough mass and nanomachines. If the core is destroyed then the nanomachines are ordered to break open a micro capsule containing a highly corrosive acid which dissolves the substance so as to make retrieval impossible." Nelaus detailed.

"In short: it's the devil's own handiwork."

"I agree with you on that." Shadow Man chuckled in his characteristic tone of voice.

"This is obviously not the last we'll see of them. We're gonna have to walk with lead feet." Miyabi replied.

"Yeah. See you later."

"Bye."

Nelaus leaned backwards on his sofa, grumbling.

"When will _that guy_ stop sending grunts to do the wet works and show up again? I'm going to send him to Nifleheim through the Ginungagap."

"Maybe he hasn't recovered fully as of yet." Isaac commented.

"Whatever. I won't let him try to turn my classmates against me."

"That's the spirit, man!"

"Let's check the post mail… Hmmm? This paper again! Twilight. The jerk: I'll toss it into the garbage bin 'cause I'm fed up with his sense of humor!"

"Of course."

17:33 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Master."

"Ah... You…"

The tall and imposing figure cloaked in obscurity was speaking with someone else inside of a largely unlit room.

"Here I am."

There was a tall black glass vertical cylinder with various pieces of machinery attached to it placed in front of the figure: the voice had replied through a speaker placed above the machine.

"What should we do? Both Thor and Njord have been forced to retreat, and it's obvious that the Net Saviors have put two and two together and realized about my identity." The figure exposed.

"… Ack… I still need six days to be fully repaired… Go out there… And unleash as many Shadow Devils as you can all around the world… This should keep them busy… Once I'm fully repaired… Then we will be able to shift the balance in our favor…" The voice replied between hisses and gasps.

"I understand." The figure acknowledged.

"Go… and keep them busy… ack!" The voice ordered.

"Don't force thou flesh, Master."

"Save me the Edo Era speech style! Gruah!" The voice growled.

"I apologize." The figure gasped.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh… Let's see if your show's worth making it to Fox or we send it to the recycle bin." Twilight's voice rang out.

"Damn it! Twilight! You lowlife! You're betraying IQ – sama too?"

"No. IQ – sama has no time to spare for you. _Good luck_."

"Fuck! The bastard… They're speaking ill of me! I'll annihilate them yet!"

17:44 PM (Japan Time)…

"… OUWAH!"

"P-Priest – sama, sir?"

"_This damned tool-box_!"

"Eh… What did he say, B?"

"Well… _Kono tsuurubokkusu me gaa!_"

"Uh-oh."

"Priest – sama, sir. Are you alright, sir?"

"_Damn it_!"

"Well… "_Chikushou_"…"

A guy was riding a motorbike alongside a road parallel to the sea and apparently talking with someone over a PET's hands-free mode.

The PET's emblem was a blood-red-painted simplistic eye drawing.

This biker was about a meter and sixty or maybe slightly taller.

He was wearing a reddish sleeveless vest which was open over a black t-shirt plus jeans and sneakers.

They also had a black motorbike helmet with the PET's drawing imprinted on the forehead.

"Anyway! Past! What's up this time around?"

"The "Desert Wraiths", sir. And some Nordic Gods wannabe guys, sir."

"Lovely!"

"Priest – sama: do calm down."

"I know, AM! Call Calming Mind Man!"

"B-but, sir…!"

"GHRKZGKGTHZ!"

"No good." The Navi in the biker's PET muttered.

"Definitely no good." "Past" sighed.

"Nya~h!"

"Priest – sama!" A Navi called out on the other end of the line.

"I feel like blowing something up!"

"Reclaimer, do you need assistance?"

"Who the hell activated my Guilty Spark 343 imitation attempts?"

"The voice samples Priest – sama recorded…? They've been on for a while already, sir." "AM" reported back.

"Well! Isn't this CLEVER!"

"B-but…"

"Huff! So? What's the deal with those jerks, Past?"

"W-well… The "DW" guys keep on doing what Dark Land did with the weapons and those God wannabes… 2 have come out and it's believed their Boss will soon stick out his hide too."

"Hmpf. I see."

"By the way, sir, is the project…?"

"Advancing neatly? Yeah. Insofar… Maybe it'll be on the stage I've envisioned by the summer…"

"That's good, sir."

"Reclaimer, we need to get to the Library."

"TJDLHZH! Guilty Spark! Go feed the pets!"

"Why don't you turn the recordings off, sir?" "AM" asked.

"Whatever the ever! I feel in a very bad mood today!"

"No good." "B" sighed.

"I told you: no good."

"By the way… I hired a young woman this time around… Her codename is "Prophetess" and her Navi… Hum… Their initial is "W"…"

"I see, sir. So then… There's Priest – sama and another four, me included, sir? We're growing in numbers, sir."

"Yeah. But maybe I'll find someone else along the way. I'm working on two new devices which will become our trademarks."

"That sounds interesting, sir."

"Guess it does. Anyway… I'll call you when I need news from there: stay tuned to figure out what Twilight's up to as well."

"Roger, sir."

"Reclaimer, we need to feed the pets."

"When the hell did I record that?" "Priest" grumbled.

"I'm not sure, sir."

"Reclaimer, we need to contain the Flood."

"Tell me how, light-bulb!"

"Priest – sama: why don't you wash your face with cold water or something like that, sir? Then you'd calm down, right, sir?"

"Huff. Guess that, AM. It's still an AM hour."

"Priest – sama… That pun's running old, sir."

"See ya around!"

The call ended and "Past" stopped the bike on the side of the road to take out a pair of binoculars from a backpack and survey a rural road leading into the woods.

"That's the place… Let's get ready to strike."

"Roger. I'm itching for some action… Heh, heh, heh… Let's go! Wro~h!"

06:55 AM (New York Time)…

"… This is so dull… "Sentry duty"… I didn't join the Marine Corps for this stuff!"

"Bear with it."

Two Marine Corps recruits were keeping watch of a large weapons storehouse.

"Stationed in some forgotten base near the end of the Hudson River and close to the Verrazano Bridge.. What a deal!"

"I said bear with it."

Both were smoking and looked in rather bad mood at being relegated to just doing sentry duty.

"I'm serious! That Lieutenant guy just thinks he's the king of everything and everyone. They should kick 'im out and tell 'im who's in charge of the deal." One of the guards grumbled.

"I'll agree with ya on that one." The second guard commented next.

Several buzz-like mechanical sounds filled the air all of a sudden: the two soldiers gasped and stood up, drawing their issued M4 carbines.

"Who goes there?" One questioned.

"Identify yourself!" The second demanded.

About half a dozen of those _Nibelung_ robots came out from the fog: they looked menacing enough with their red eyes.

"T-those are the things which boarded the _Utah_ time ago! A buddy of mine told me! And they're almost impossible to take down!" The second soldier gasped.

"Eat M4, you machines! I'll get a promotion!" The first soldier proclaimed.

He began to shoot at one: the machine set its feet on the ground and gracefully moved the body to dodge while it sometimes changed the angle or position of any of the legs in a graceful manner.

"God! I'm out of ammo! I've never found anything which I couldn't hit with my M4!" The first soldier gasped.

"I told you so!" The second grumbled.

Both soldiers had been knocked out cold by the robots' stun guns and the "Dimensional Area" had been projected soon enough: Cobra and Vulture appeared inside of the storehouse.

"Cargo acquired." Cobra reported.

"We're transferring it now without the need of DHL." Vulture added with a grin.

"That's a good one!" Cobra chuckled.

"That's a bad one."

"Che. Twilight in person!"

Twilight's 3D image formed there and leant against a wall while stuffing both hands into the pockets while smirking.

"Do not underestimate the power of the Sith. I find your lack of faith disturbing." He taunted them.

"Go tuna."

"Go mackerel."

"Heh, heh, heh. The "go fish" parodies are getting popular, eh?"

"GRJTZ!"

"Damn you~…" Meta growled over the radio.

"You plotter!" Cobra cursed.

"I invoke the Plot." He laughed.

"Damn it. Let's pull out already, Vulture."

"Sure… We'll remember this!"

"Come back anytime, Birds of Prey Mongolia Version… Hah, hah, hah!"

21:09 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Bloody them! They struck again while we were trying to get a hold on that Odin guy!"

BLAM!

Vadous banged the armrests of his command armchair and uttered a set of curses under his breath.

"This is turning too hard to handle… What should I do?"

"We could try "divide and conquer", Boss." Omega suggested while popping out behind Vadous.

"Hmmm… It could work. You take care of tracing Odin along with Zero and I'll look into the base of operation the Desert Wraiths use. The Net Saviors can deal with anything either Odin or the Desert Wraiths toss at them."

"I'll go start hunting." Omega announced.

"Sure."

Omega began to walk out of the command bridge when, all of a sudden, alarms began to blare.

"_Les minions de Lucifer! Aux armes!"_ A pre-recorded voice announced.

"What the…?" Vadous cursed.

A worldwide map was brought up and lots of red spots shone on a lot of countries.

"Black Ace! Specify cause of emergency!" Vadous commanded.

"Roger."

The map zoomed into the San Francisco city area and brought up live feed showing people running away from something and policemen shooting at something off-screen with machineguns.

"Die, die, die~!"

"What's up there?"

A hand closed in a punch made out of a black substance flew across the screen, hitting the policemen and pushing the patrol car sideways: the hand opened to show a familiar red eye on its palm.

"A Shadow Devil!" Omega cursed.

"So! They did produce more of them? However! This doesn't seem to be the work of the Desert Wraiths. Odin must be trying to keep us busy, I'd say… Black Ace! Trace origin point of all Shadow Devil units!"

"Roger."

The screen switched back to the worldwide map and zoomed in an island in the midst of the Pacific.

"Control signal has been detected emerging from this island. The island is registered as being a former Ameroupe Army facility. Code – name: KA – 222." Black Ace announced.

"KA – 222…? Hey! That's where the _Spectrum_ experiment facility was at! Didn't the Army demolish it years ago?" Omega realized.

"Maybe they only removed or collapsed the "Spectrum" facility but left the remaining buildings and departments intact just in case they could repopulate it or something like that…" Vadous guessed.

Satellite imagery came in through the main LCD screen: indeed, the bulk of the volcano-like structure housing "Spectrum" was no more than a pile of rubble, heap and junk filled with burnt marks and cracks.

"See?"

A small complex of concrete buildings built nearby was still standing and a large emitter/receiver satellite dish antenna had been built using a metal tower about ten meters tall.

"Control signal originates from antenna. Antenna does not figure in the facility's original schematics. It is most likely a recent addition."

"Go there, Omega, and try to see if you can at the very least recall the Shadow Devils there and shut them down. Then we'll blow up the thing."

18:14 PM (Jakarta Time)…

"… Hah. The world shall know how foolish it was to neglect our existence."

"I wonder 'bout that… Odin!"

The tall and imposing figure turned, letting light illuminate him.

Odin was about two meters and ten tall.

He had brownish beard covering his face and red eye irises.

His golden and silver helmet looked like a Viking's: it exposed the sides and back of his head.

He wore metallic black battle armor and a large blue cape reaching all the way to the floor.

He carried a large bronze-colored sword sheath on the right side of his belt and a bluish shield on his left hand.

His chest emblem merely contained a set of Runic symbols painted symbol and set against a gray background.

"Omega!"

Both of them were inside of the antenna's Cyber World and a large holographic screen showing footage from the Shadow Devil units could be seen behind Odin.

"How did you know I was here?" Odin demanded in a deep and imposing voice.

"Need Not To Know. I'm going to take both you and your girls down. Next time… Hire a space bus to lead Einherjars to the Valhalla across the Bifrost."

"You're angering me! You shall know the Anger of God!" Odin grumbled with increasing annoyance.

"You're no God. You're a Net Navi programmed to act as a dummy in case something happened to _Gate_." Omega pointed out.

"I don't know that name!" Odin hastily replied.

"Don't try avoiding it. We found info stating that he was planning on programming you and signed by him. We've realized he's alive and stalling." Omega dully replied.

"I shall destroy you before you can even know where Master is at!"

"So be it."

Omega dashed forward in the blink of an eye, leaving a set of "afterimages" on his wake.

"What!"

He quickly jumped using the strength of his diagonal vertical attack, leaving a deep cut on Odin's armor around the lower torso area.

"Hmpf."

He used the interval before landing down in the ground to unleash his saber combo attacks: he moved up, down and traced a wide horizontal arch.

"There's more."

He began to roll around himself and keep on attacking. He pointed his saber downwards and hit the ground: he generated an electrical current which travelled across the ground thus electrocuting Odin.

"Ugruck!"

Omega then swung his saber while tracing a horizontal arch, causing fin-shaped energy slices to travel across the ground and hit Odin fully.

"Not yet."

He brought up his O – Buster and shot a sphere of fire which impacted Odin's upper torso and spread to inflict further damage.

"Eat these!"

"Gruckuh!"

He charged up a small sphere of electricity and shot it at the helmet, electrocuting Odin's head.

"And this too."

He shot a spear of ice which impacted in the upper torso and left a noticeable wound on it.

"There. Had enough?"

Although the whole process had seemed endless, it had in truth been slightly under two minutes.

"Huh? Ugrkuh!"

When Odin managed to react he felt pain in several parts of his body and a decreased physical condition: he even had to fall on his fours to regain his breath.

"W-what the… What is that power…? I've never… seen anything like it before… And I was programmed for battle…!" Odin cursed.

"Gate was clearly hoping you wouldn't face me. Everybody knows to fear me when I fight with my limiters removed." Omega coolly told him.

"D-damn it…! This is not… you shall see from us…! We shall… come back…! Just you… wait… vermin!" Odin hissed.

Odin warped out while Omega turned off the saber and compacted it into one piece which he place into a holster he had on his right hip.

"Let's recall these guys here and blow them up." Omega muttered aloud.

He pressed some keys on the control screen: all Shadow Devils across the world de-materialized and re-appeared inside of the system in deactivated state: there were about thirty of them.

"Boss? This is Omega. I'm coming back: you can deploy the EMP on this system." Omega reported.

"Good job. You gave that Odin rascal his deserved kickass."

"But of course."

"Pull out."

Omega warped into another Cyber World which was a round plaza having several gateways further in and a rotating 3D image of the Earth with a red dot drawing an orbit around the planet.

"Bring up sensor imagery."

A holographic screen showed how purple clouds formed on the sky and began to unleash thunderbolts: a massive EMP pulse began to build up and all Shadow Devils began to self-destruct.

"Good. Switch to satellite view."

The real-world antenna smoked and fell from its support thus shattering upon hitting the ground ten meters below.

"We got rid of thirty of 'em… That should put a dent on Gate's plans to stall. He won't be able to hide for much longer."

"Yeah. It's about time we flushed him out. I believe Nelaus and Isaac will be more than enough to take him down like last time. It's impossible to make cyber armor capable of resisting _everything_. No. All armors have a limit to what they can resist."

"I like that point of view. Let's let him fall again into his delusion and he'll be easy prey. We'll then round those three Navis and get rid of 'em as well to finish this. Twilight will come later."

"And since the jerk won't bother to help Gate 'cause he probably doesn't see a guy worth his time on him then we've got nothing to worry about: save for Dragon's odd behavior, that is."

"Huff."

"…fake Gods which shall bring upon the anger of the true Gods and…"

"Lovely."

"Guess he's been seeing _Duel Monsters_…"

"Dragon Hell… Will you ever come down to Earth or WHAT? What a guy!"


	7. Chapter 7: Questioning

**Chapter 7: Questioning**

09:16 AM (Japan Time), Saturday the 14th…

"… Netto – kun."

"Hmmm…"

"Netto – kun."

"Hmmm… Five more minutes, Rocky – chan…"

"WAKE UP!"

"YIKES!"

CRASH! THUD!

Netto fell from his bed in a totally wild move and hit the back of his head against the ground.

"O~w…"

He managed to sit down and rub it before he looked up to see Saito looking in a bad mood.

"This is a confession! What… Did you think I had a girly-like voice or what?" Saito grumbled.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I was making a pun!" Netto apologized.

"For the last time! I don't need any nicknames."

"I learnt the lesson! I'm sorry!"

"You better get in the move. We need to go do some errands."

"Yeah… You win…"

Netto sluggishly stood up and arranged the bed: he picked his usual clothes from inside of the cupboard and walked into the bathroom.

"Huff."

He came out fully dressed five minutes later.

"Sorry for the delay."

He placed the pajamas under the pillow and fixed the wrinkles.

"I'll be downstairs." Netto told Sigma.

"O. K.!"

Netto descended downstairs and found Saito finishing his breakfast: Haruka was humming a tune as she prepared some hot coffee.

"…'Morning, Mama…"

"Good morning, dear. By the way… Saito. Was it really necessary to yell at him?"

"Sorry, Mama. But he came up with a silly nickname which I didn't like, so I lost my temper."

"Oh! That's how it is…" Haruka giggled.

"Mama! I don't think it's funny!" Saito protested.

"Sorry. It reminds me of my times…"

"Hmm. I get it."

Netto, in the meanwhile, was eating his breakfast: he drank some coffee to shake the sleepiness off him.

"We better get going." Saito suggested.

"Yeah. It's time to shake it." Netto nodded in confirmation.

"Take care, dears!"

"Okay, Mama!"

Both of them picked their Link PETs and wallets before exiting their house.

"By the way… Did you have any luck tracing that Odin guy back to his foxhole?" Netto asked Sigma.

"Commander Omega told us he'd embedded a tracer on 'im, but no signal shows up… He either has found it or he's in a literal foxhole…"

"Hmmm… He won't be able to hide for long." Saito shrugged.

"Yeah. If he thinks that we're going to let him get away with what he did yesterday, he's very mistaken." Blood Shadow added.

"Mwah, hah, hah… Bert Saxby will fire 'im!" Sigma laughed.

However, a mysterious man sporting a raincoat, a hat and sunglasses was apparently following them close by.

He carried a small handheld digital camera.

"Commendable, yet futile." A dull voice with a hint of amusement rang out from behind the man.

The unidentified man turned around wildly to see another man standing in the alleyway.

This man was on his forties and could be over a meter and ninety tall: they had an athletic build to them.

His hair was colored in a blonde color and was neatly combed although it had reminiscences of a military haircut given the edges.

He was dressed in a gray trench overcoat, a black sports suit and pants along with brown shoes.

He had sunglasses on, though.

"Who might you be?" The newcomer questioned.

"I – eh – tourist – me – visiting – country…" The man replied in rather bad English.

"Hmmm… A foreigner who doesn't know English or _pretends_ not to know English… You reek of government agent, you know." The newcomer announced in English.

"I – tourist – I – say it again – me – tourist!" The man kept on using bad English.

"Hmmm… Colonel Talos! Maybe you could give me a hand?" The newcomer asked to someone else.

"_Where_ might _you_ be going _to_? _Comrade_?" A cold voice rang out from behind the man.

The man turned around to be faced with a second newcomer.

He looked as being on his late forties.

His hair was grey and parts of it fell down in the front of the face and he seemed to be missing his left eye as well.

He was dressed in a grey army uniform, although the area around the sleeves and neck was colored in a reddish patch.

He had a distinction on the right side of the uniform just underneath the right shoulder.

He sported tall black boots too.

"From the kind of behavior plus what can be seen of his facial features and height… I would say he is a _Choina Secret Service_ operative. Please deal with him, Chief Lezareno." Colonel Talos announced.

He drew a strange weapon which essentially was two curved blades spanning in opposite directions and attached to a cylinder.

They looked custom-made due to some carvings being present on them.

"Hmmm… And they must want to gather information regarding Mr. Rock Man EXE, then. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but as long as we are around then you guys don't stand a chance." Chief Lezareno smiled.

The agent looked quickly to left and right: there was no way to escape.

"We have a message for your superiors: give up. Do relay it."

"And leave before we hand you over to the KCK." Colonel Talos added.

The guy ran towards the west like he was going to be slaughtered alive.

"The Choina Secret Service must have gotten a hold of something… Maybe they picked information off somewhere?" Colonel Talos commented.

"I shall speak about this with Mr. Sponsor. Maybe Twilight's involved."

09:42 AM (Japan Time)…

DING DONG!

"Coming…"

Nelaus opened his house's door after checking who the visitor was through the peep hole.

"Good morning, Nelaus – kun!" Aura greeted.

"Good morning, Aura – chan. Please come in." Nelaus smiled.

"How are you doing, Isaac?" Felicia asked him.

"You know me." Isaac grinned.

Aura walked in and sat down in the living room's sofa while Nelaus entered the kitchen and prepared some tea for the two of them.

"Here's the tea."

"_Thank you_!"

They both drank part of their tea cup's contents and looked relaxed before Nelaus' Link PET rang.

"Who's calling me, Isaac?" Nelaus asked.

"I can't trace the number or the location." Isaac replied.

"… Patch it through. It must be one of those pranksters." Nelaus calmly told him.

"Hello there." An amused voice greeted.

"… Who do you think you are?" Nelaus dully questioned.

"You know who I am."

"Sorry. I don't know any pranksters."

"… Oh. I understand. There is an audience… Did the audience think carefully about the photographs I provided it with?" The voice asked with obvious amusement.

"You must be the one who sent that weird folder filled with sci-fi film photos!" Aura accused the caller.

"Sci-fi film…? I do agree that it does_ look _like it is the case. However, I shall quote a certain phrase: "reality sometimes goes above fiction."… What do you make out of it?" The voice kept on sounding amused.

"You're a bully who picks on girls! If you have courage then go settle it with Nelaus – kun like a man!"

"Indeed, I shall do so once I recover from this injury… Those soccer club idiots, moved by jealousy, purposely inflicted it on me… Everyone yearns to be number one and keep all the glory for himself… Soccer is no more than a tool to control the masses…"

"You sound like a conspiracy fanatic."

"Are you sure you live in the present?" Felicia challenged.

"But of course I do." The voice replied.

"You don't sound very convincing." Isaac shot back.

"Well then… I will leave you with two hints: Gondwana and Deadly Pandora… Think about it, elegant _Mademoiselles_… As for the affair with the _Monsieur_… Next week our affairs shall be settled once and for all."

"I'll be waiting for it." Nelaus replied in an icy tone of voice.

"Heh, heh, heh… Do crave your own grave… Heh, heh, heh… Bwah, hah, hah! Hah, hah, hah!"

"What a psycho!" Aura complained.

"They should hit him in the head with a hammer to straighten him out!"

"Let's set that asides and go have a walk around, shall we?"

"It'll help change the mood." Isaac added.

"What a nice idea! Let's go out." Aura smiled.

"Please wait a min. I'll clean this and then we'll be on our way. Ta-tan!"

10:10 AM (Beijing Time)…

"… By all the…! It'd seem that it was a bad idea to get involved into this affair… There are a lot of intriguing people all around the area!"

A man with the General rank was reading a report inside of an office.

He looked on his fifties.

He wore brown military attire, was bald and had a moustache.

"Not only our agent has been uncovered in the first day, but I've already received an anonymous email telling me to keep myself out of this affair as well… And something tells me I'm about to receive worse news…"

There was a knock on the door: a Lieutenant walked in and saluted.

"General Ming, sir! The Honorable Secretary of the Party is on the phone and requests to dialogue with you, sir!" The Lieutenant reported.

"The Secretary of the Party…? I'm on my way…"

General Ming walked into another office and grabbed a wireless phone.

"General Ming? I have some questions for you." A man's voice announced.

"Do ask." General Ming looked nervous.

"Is it true that you have tried to carry out a totally unauthorized operation to try to capture a Japanese Net Savior Net Navi and force him to work for the Secret Service?" The man questioned.

"I-it is true, Honorable Secretary…"

"Have you gone mad? Did you really believe there would not be consequences? Did you really think they would not be able to retrieve him and return him to normal? Did you really not consider all the possible happenings? We are rather disappointed on you, General."

"Ah, eh, hum… But I…" General Ming looked at a loss for words.

"You have come this far thanks to the Party. However! You are rather wrong if you believed you would be able to do this unnoticed."

"Yikes."

"I am going to warn you: once the high-rank members of the Party get a hold of this, several heads will roll across the ground." The man warned in an icy tone of voice.

"I-I understand… I shall… assume… all responsibility for… my actions…"

"That is what we expect you to do. Your job is to look out from _threats_, either from the inside or the outside. You are not supposed to intervene in other countries' policies which do not involve us." The man reminded him.

"I-indeed, Honorable Secretary…"

"That is all. Do think about the consequences of your actions. Farewell."

The line went dead and General Ming looked as pale as a ghost.

"Three hours… Everything has gone downhill in only three hours… Those people are terrifically efficient…" He muttered.

The phone rang again and he picked it up.

"Hello?"

"OH YEAH! LET ZA PARTY HIT ZA INN!"

"W-WHAT?" He growled.

"I'm Cloud Man: I'm watching you!"

"Who?"

"Boo."

"YIKES!"

Cloud Man formed his 3D image and made a creepy grin: the General ran off without bothering to place the wireless on its place and it hit the floor with a THUD sound: Cloud Man laughed.

"Let the phones hit the ground!"

He laughed for another bit and vanished from sight…

19:48 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah… It feels… great… Netto - kun… Saito – kun…"

"Doesn't it? Sorry. But I'm going to go a bit faster today."

"Heh, heh, heh. Get ready, Tooru – kun."

"O~h…"

Netto, Saito and Hikawa were having sex inside of the shower: Netto and Saito were stuffing their cocks into Hikawa as Netto faced from the front and Saito stood behind him.

The three of them had clipped clothes pegs to their nipples and both Netto and Saito had stuffed a string of anal beads and a vibrator into their asses too while Hikawa had a bell-shaped one placed on his head's cock as he rubbed it with his right hand.

"Our threesomes are the best, right?"

"Yeah… O~h… Sometimes I fantasize too…" Hikawa admitted.

"Heh, heh, heh. No wonder."

"So… What's happening now?"

"Well. That Odin guy and his two pawns are pawns of a big bad jerk which has a score to settle with Nelaus… But we're far more concerned about how to deal with the "Desert Wraiths" guys… Let's hope we can find their base and put an end to them soon." Netto sighed.

"What about Twilight?"

"Dunno. Maybe he's moved to another nation. His Darkloids' holograms pop out to taunt but they don't much more than that."

Saito began to lick the rear of Hikawa's ears and his moans increased in volume as he kept on rubbing his cock.

"Coming!"

"Whoa!"

"Ua~h!"

Hikawa released as he took off the vibrator: his released tightened Netto and Saito's cocks and they went off too while letting out moans of pleasure.

"That felt good…" Hikawa giggled.

"Sure… Let's make turns now. Tooru – kun: gear up."

"OK."

Hikawa picked another seat of anal beads and vibrators which he stuffed to his ass before Netto got down to his knees and grabbed his and Saito's cocks to take turns sucking or licking them: Hikawa and Saito faced each other and began to share a kiss while Netto began to rub their cocks: they moaned and then released: they broke the kiss too.

"Ah… Good, good!"

"Yeah. Netto – kun does it very well." Hikawa grinned.

"Let's shift."

Netto got up while Saito descended: Netto and Hikawa began to kiss but Netto inwardly grinned and pinched Hikawa's balls to excite him further: Hikawa moaned under his breath and both he and Netto ended up releasing as well: Saito licked the stains around his face and swallowed them up with a grin.

"Next!"

"My turn, then."

Hikawa did the same and both Netto and Saito began to pinch and pull each other's sack skin to excite each other: they released as well so Hikawa stood up and they shared a three-way kissing.

"Well! Now I feel refreshed enough. See ya, Tooru – kun."

"Let's meet next week: deal?" Saito suggested.

"These meetings are really refreshing so… I don't mind. Heh, heh, heh."

21:04 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… Mwah, hah, hah… Hah, hah, hah…"

"What's up, Cloud Man? I'm busy collecting PKMN."

"Nam NMKP came!"

"Sure, sure. Go tell him you're the best."

"Mwah, hah, hah. So? Did Mr. X show up?"

"Mr. X? Do you mean "Looker" from the International Police?"

"Guess I mean Mr. Factory Head Neziki."

"Huff. The Battle Frontier… I managed to clear "Gold" in the Castle and the Roulette but the others are nightmarish… You need to have a good knowledge of moves and types if you want to win the Battle Factory: now talk about trouble."

Philip was playing with a Nintendo DS while resting on his bed without having taken the covers off.

He sported a pair of black pajamas and socks.

The bedroom was simplistic and only had the bed, a chair, a cupboard and a desk with some books atop it.

Cloud Man had formed a holographic screen to Philip's right but he didn't take his eyes off the Nintendo DS as he talked.

"Mwah, hah, hah… Castle Butler Kokuran proved to be too much of a gentleman?"

"Guess that."

"Stage Madonna Kate will beat THE Madonna!"

"How clever."

"Tower Tycoon Kurotsugu will try to reconcile with his kiddo!"

"I know… Can't you do anything else like, dunno, play Tetris online?"

"Mwah, hah, hah! Roulette Goddess Dahlia will make you dance at the rhythm of her "_que sera, sera~_"…"

"I know all of that already."

"Ya do, Darth Bapgei?"

"Cloud Man! Stop bothering Darth Bapgei. Do something useful!" Freeze Man grumbled in the background.

"R-roger, sir! S-see ya!"

"Jeez. About time… Sorry, Freeze Man. I seem to be a magnet for the guy."

"Huff. Not like you're to blame… You weren't doing anything odd either."

"At least! Mediation!" Yamato Man muttered.

"Phew." Swallow Man sighed in relief.

"That imbecile…!" Cosmo Man was annoyed.

"Calm down: all of you." Freeze Man ordered them.

"Oh boy…"

The screen shut down and Philip finished his play-through by saving the game and then switching off the console which he placed atop the table: he stretched and pulled up the covers to climb into the bed: he placed both hands behind his head and glanced at the simplistic wooden ceiling of his room.

"Heh. I'm lucky… I happened to be a good masochist so I volunteered for a "club" in the city and then Master found me there… He saw me for the type I really was… And I've become his "Sith" disciple… Darth Bapgei, antithesis to Nelaus Rainon… Heh. Fitting. Truly."

He chuckled under his breath and opened a window to let some air in because he seemingly found the environment to be hot.

"We're at March and it's still this hot… Guess winter will be coming late this year around… It's to be expected from living in the southern hemisphere… Well then… It's time to nap. Heh, heh, heh! Heh, heh, heh!"


	8. Chapter 8: Confrontation

**Chapter 8: Confrontation**

08:58 AM (Japan Time), Sunday March the 15th …

"… I can't believe it!"

Meiru walked out of her house looking in a rather bad mood and walked up the street at a brisk pace until she reached the Hikari house: she rang the bell and Haruka opened the door.

"Oh! Meiru – chan! Good morning." She greeted.

"Good morning, ma'am."

"Did you come to see Netto?"

"Both of them, actually… There's some institute stuff we need to talk about."

"Do come in." Haruka invited.

"Thank you."

Meiru stepped in and climbed upstairs: she knocked on the bedroom's door.

"Come in!" Netto's voice replied.

She stepped in and quickly looked around: Netto was sitting next to the desk and reading a _manga_ comic while Saito seemed to be looking for something in the closet.

"Oh. Hullo, Meiru – chan. Why are ya here?" Netto looked up, surprised.

"We need to - talk - about - serious stuff - Netto! And you too, Saito." Meiru made a grimace.

"Did you get a threatening email or what?"

"No. It concerns you and Saito."

"It concerns me as well?" Saito asked while popping out of the closet.

"You didn't tell me it concerned Saito – kun as well, Meiru – chan."

"… Netto. You're a - _freak_." Meiru hissed.

"Yeah. Everyone who reads _manga_ is called a _freak_ but that's because other people don't want to admit that there _manga_ series which are better than the ones they're reading."

"… Tell your two Navis to scram. This is between _me_ and you two." Meiru pointed an accusing finger at the Link PETs on top of the desk.

"Guys! Could you go into the Home Page and keep watch there? We want to get to the bottom of this." Netto requested.

"Sure." Sigma shrugged.

"Call us when you're finished."

Meiru made sure all doors and windows were locked properly and kept on looking in a rather bad mood.

"It has nothing to do with _manga_ or _anime_ series." Meiru told them.

"Huh? Then… What basis do you have for calling me a _freak_?" Netto frowned.

"Saito also is. And I'm sure he's the root of all this." Meiru pointed an accusing finger at him.

"I'm the root of _what_?" Saito frowned.

"I've found it out…"

"What have you found out? That we go training elsewhere from time to time?"

"No! It has nothing to do with "public" activities!" Meiru hissed.

Saito suddenly seemed to realize something: he glanced at Netto's wristband and then back at Meiru.

"… You sent the wristband. Didn't you, Meiru – chan?" Saito coolly asked.

"… I did." Meiru admitted.

"What's so bad about it, niisan?" Netto didn't seem to have caught up.

"I'd stake anything that it has a hidden microphone. And that Meiru – chan has been hearing to what goes on around us with it."

"What goes on around us…? It couldn't be!" Netto suddenly gasped.

"Meiru – chan! You could get into a mess because of this! Hearing what people do without their consent amounts to spying! You're not the government!" Roll scolded her.

"Shut up. You'll agree with me when I tell you what they really are." Meiru shot back.

"If you mean to say that they have no love interest in girls then I don't care." Roll replied.

"No! They're _yaoi_! They dragged Tooru – kun into that!"

"_Yaoi_? No wonder."

"What? How could you not react to this?" Meiru questioned.

"Meiru – chan. There's something which is called "acceptance". I accept things as they are. I don't believe in a silly world ruled by _clichés_. No. The world is complex and it always has been. If Netto – san, Tooru – san and Saito – kun like each other, then so be it. They have chosen their path on life: I'm not going to force them to change it. I'm glad to be their friend."

"You sound like a bloody politician." Meiru hissed.

"Actually… You're the one who sounds like one of those extremist right-wing parties." Saito pointed out.

"Don't dare talk back to me, you freak! You stole my destined one from me!" Meiru accused him.

"Sorry? I _stole_ Netto – kun? You're missing something in here. Our relationship with Tooru - kun is _mutual_. We've been at it since four years ago." Saito dully replied.

"I don't know where you get those ideas from, Meiru – chan, but you should realize something: this _is_ reality. You can't live in a world ruled by _clichés_."

"Why, you two…!" Meiru hissed.

"If you don't have anything else to say… You might as well go back home and think it over." Roll suggested.

"I will…!" Meiru began.

"You won't do anything 'cause the way you got this info is illegal. You don't have authority or rank to do these things." Netto replied as he took out the wrist band and tossed it at Meiru.

"And keep your cheap spy movie gizmo for yourself. We won't let anyone intrude in our privacy."

Meiru made a grimace and walked out, closing the door behind her: she ran off and exited the house without even stopping to say good-bye to Haruka.

"What's that girl's problem? Did Netto turn her off?" Haruka wondered.

"… Really. Who'd said she was _this_ fanatical? I'm afraid she'll go and try to force Tooru – kun to become her boyfriend." Netto rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't doubt it. But Roll will make pressure and maybe her parents will tell her to behave and accept things as they are. And she's going to get scolded for spying on others illegally."

"Let's proceed as we were." Netto suggested as he picked up his _manga_ book.

"Yeah. Nothing happened 'ere. You can come back, guys."

"It'd seem you had a quarrel."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! They told 'er she's fired!" Sigma joked.

"No." The three of them drily replied.

"Oh! I see. She got annoyed that you won't be her boyfriend, eh, Hikari~?"

"Yeah. I don't want to risk it. I want to wait until we're more mature."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Let's see if Bloody Shadow and I go for "it"…"

09:11 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Hullo!"

"How many times do I have to tell ya? Stop stalking me."

Martin had been having a drink inside of a café when Ursula had popped out in front of his noses.

"I won't. I'm going to get the glory." Ursula told Martin.

"I don't know where the Desert Wraiths are at, and, even if I knew, I have no obligation to tell ya! I'm a Net Savior and I only have to report to the Net Police. Bear with it, Ursula." Martin grumbled.

"Go to see yer friends, the Ural Bears!" Lander laughed.

"Why, you…! I shall get the glory and I shall be ascended! Just you wait…!"

"Why add more wood to a berserk forest fire? It makes no sense." Martin grumbled.

"You're right on that, Martin! We should tell that chick that she should go spend the winter at Siberia!" Lander chuckled.

"Yeah. We really should." Martin sighed.

"By the way… What are we gonna do with the grunts once we catch them?" Lander asked.

"I wouldn't like any army trying to process them because of their actions and I certainly wouldn't like them being returned to Dark Land. I guess we'll have to judge them here in Japan through a civilian court." Martin brought a hand to his chin and sounded like he was considering the possibilities.

"That would be the wisest course of action indeed."

"Wouldn't it be? Regarding those three Norse-mythology-themed Net Navis… I'd say we fight them until they tire or we delete them. Who knows? Maybe they'll self-destruct like the FOD guys if we assume Gate's the paranoid type of guy. Twilight will come later on. Let's go."

09:33 AM (Japan Time)…

"… How many of these are left out there?"

"Dunno."

Davis had stumbled upon a Shadow Devil while investigating an abandoned mainframe: he was having trouble since it was shifting shapes very quickly and hiding its weak spot.

"What does it take to kill you foul creatures, hmmm?" Davis grumbled.

"Maybe we should lure it into attacking us and then strike back."

"It's risky, but I see no other way around…"

He jumped backwards and the thing assumed the shape of two claw hands: the right one had the red "eye" on it.

"There."

The enemy shot out several quick bursts of laser fire but Davis quickly jumped to dodge them and switched his golden-colored Long Sword for a Super Vulcan.

"Eat machinegun fire!"

He started to spin the barrel and shoot out several energy bullets: the Shadow Devil was unable to react in time and the bullets hit the "eye" on the right claw: the hits stunned it and left it open to attack.

"Battle Chip, Justice Sword, Area Steal! Double Slot In!"

Davis drew the golden-colored Long Sword and warped next to the open claw: he plunged the sword into the "eye" and backed off.

"How's that like, huh?"

The result was immediate: the core blew up and the substance dissolved, leaving only corroded terrain where it had been before.

"Phew! We managed to take it down somehow… They're getting desperate: that I can see. Let's get outta here and investigate, Charlie."

08:44 AM (Mongolia Time)…

"… Meta… What are we gonna do? We have money, we have weapons, and we have resources… But this can't last forever. We need something BIG to keep the Net Saviors busy enough…"

"Don't fret, Scorpion. I'll think of something."

Scorpion was exposing his worries to Meta inside of their base's main office.

"If you say so… However… Don't you think that our "escape" from Dark Land was way too easy? I have had the feeling that they were _expecting_ us to run away with the weapons…" Scorpion added.

"… You're right. I've felt something like that as of late…"

"But what would they gain from this, Meta – sama?" Vulture asked.

"Are we supposed to test the weapons to make sure they're efficient and then they'll steal them from us?" Cobra suggested.

"Hmmm… Sounds like it… We should reinforce our security… We could deploy "Dimensional Area" walls inside of some of the corridors to block off any intruder and, at the same time, make sure they couldn't detect us so easily."

"Should we tell Viper and Bella not to leave and come back so often?"

"Yeah. We should tell those two but I doubt they'll obey for long."

"Roger. I'll go talk it with them."

"I won't let anyone use me." Meta grumbled.

Meta resumed typing into his laptop while Vulture looked up several documents.

"Bring me some green tea."

"Roger."

"Damn it. They've fooled me or what? Damned bureaucrats!"

09:55 AM (Japan Time)…

"... Saito – kun! You have a call."

"Who's the caller, Blood?"

Saito had been reading one of his novels when Blood Shadow had reported an incoming call: Netto was lying face-up on the bed and reading his _manga_ book.

"It's an unidentified number." Blood Shadow announced with a hint of concern.

"… Patch it through. If it's who I think it is then I'll tell them one or two things." Saito replied.

"Okay."

Saito picked the Link PET and stared at the black screen.

"… Hello there." A familiar voice greeted.

"… You must be Bella." Saito dully assumed.

"That's correct… _Rock Man EXE_." Bella replied before letting out the bombshell.

"What?" Saito gasped.

Netto dropped the _manga_ and looked surprised as well.

"H-how could you…? Wait! You've been snooping inside of Deadly Pandora's server!" Saito realized.

"That's correct." Another voice added.

"You must be Viper!" Netto hissed.

"That's right, Hikari Netto! We know _everything_ regarding your Navi: how he likes to pretend he's the big bro you never had!"

_Wait, Netto – kun. Maybe Twilight altered the data to fool them and laugh at them… They must think I'm just using a Copy Roid and that's all: I'm still a Navi in their eyes._

_Ah! I like that better. Let's pretend that._

"Well! I felt lonely! And both Papa and Mama agreed!" Netto protested back with some annoyance.

"Tee, heh, heh, heh… You should be conscious of one thing… You _will_ experience THE Art. It is inevitable." Viper sounded eager.

"That's so true, Viper – sama. We have been doing it with other young handsome boys out there: but we're holding back to use its full potential on you two…" Bella also sounded eager.

"You all S&M sadists are bunch of psychos." Saito made a grimace.

"Who knows?" Bella teased.

"Once we know where _you guys_ are at we're so gonna dismantle you and send you to the brig." Netto hissed.

"I wouldn't doubt it, taking into account what that Vadous man seems to be capable of doing… But I'd say those three Net Navis out there are keeping you busy from time to time. Isn't that right?" Viper giggled.

"They won't for much longer. Once they're gone… You guys are next in our hit list." Saito hissed.

"Hmmm… You sound determined. I like that. Well, then… Enjoy…"

"Maybe you will be within our clutches before you know it. Bye – bye!"

"Sorry. The protocol seems to have been picked off the FBI. It leads to their HQ." Blood Shadow announced.

"Grrrr… I can't stand these types! They remind me of Twilight!"

"Yeah. Those two are the real freaks." Netto grumbled as well.

"They won't be able to hide forever." Saito added.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah… Whyte will come out and tell 'em they're fired." Sigma joked.

"Well. Guess that. But don't bring up Dragon's weird banners next!"

21:19 PM (Cayman Time), Saturday March the 14th…

"… Majestic Thunder!"

"Dodge!"

"I'm on it!"

Blues and Search Man had stumbled upon Thor while searching an abandoned mainframe.

"Sonic Boom!"

"Scope Gun!"

The two attacks were deflected by Thor's new body armor, colored silver and with purple patterns on it: Thor laughed.

"Now that I have this new armor… I am INVINCIBLE!"

"… Blues. Try to deflect his attacks." Search Man whispered.

"Roger."

"Majestic Thunder!"

Thor drew his hammer, loaded it with electricity, and shot a stream of electricity towards the Net Saviors.

"Battle Chip, Lightning Rod! Slot In!"

"Search Man! Switch to Freeze Bullet Mode!" Laika commanded.

Blues made the Lightning device appear in front of him while Search Man switched bullet mode: the electrical attack was intercepted by the obstacle.

"Battle Chip, Prism! Slot In!" Laika announced.

Search Man tossed the Prism Battle Chip: it floated over Thor's body.

"Freeze Bullet!"

The multiple reflected shots provoked various patches of ice to appear on Thor's armor.

"Hah! That's all you can do?" Thor mocked.

"Wrong." Blues smirked.

The Lightning Rod Battle Chip shot the electrical attack back at the Prism and it divided into multiple bursts which hit the frozen patches on Thor's armor thus provoking electrical discharges on him and making parts of his armor jump off him.

"GUO~H!"

Their strategy had had the desired effect: most of Thor's body armor had been broken and jumped off his body, exposing him to normal attacks.

"This can't be…! I am INVICIBLE!" Thor roared.

"Idiot. You're no more than a fool who won't accept that he has flaws."

"Program Advance!"

"Program Advance!"

"Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Slot In!"

"Dream Sword!"

The powerful Program Advance left a crevice on the ground on its wake and hit Thor fully, further damaging his armor and body.

"GRA~H!"

"Program Advance!"

"Program Advance!"

"Vulcan, Triple Slot In!"

"Mugen Vulcan!"

Search Man's own Program Advance hit the flesh underneath the armor, causing a large part of Thor's body data to break off and leak off.

"O… Odin… sama… I have… failed you…! A~RGH!"

"Careful now."

Thor's body began to emit bursts of white light: energy seemed to be building around him, and it looked about to collapse: it collapsed.

"Damn it."

A brutal explosion covered most of the area where the fight had taken part in. Blues and Search Man had to run off the platform and descend to a lower level.

"Too close."

Only a crater could be seen on the spot Thor had been standing at only seconds ago.

"Phew! We took one down." Blues sighed in relief.

"So we did." Search Man confirmed.

"Good job." Enzan complimented.

"They're fired."

"Heh, heh, heh… Roht had a riot."

"Please…"

Shadow Man emerged from the ground, chuckling and on his classical pose of leaning his fingers' inner side against each other: Miyabi groaned at hearing his latest rhyme.

"Listen up: there are reports of an unknown Navi attacking those _Valkyries_ all around the world but no – one has managed to get a visual ID on the guy to begin with."

"Intriguing." Blues admitted.

"Maybe they're an agent of the European Union?" Search Man wondered.

"Could be." Laika shrugged.

"Meh. As long as they're on our side…"

"And now… Banner time. "A coin has three sides: tails, face and edge. Stand on the edge and you shall rule it all." … Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…"

12:40 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… Hrah! Hah!"

"Good, good."

"Hra~h! Eat these!"

"Like that…"

"Huff."

"5 minutes break."

"Roger."

Philip had been training against a "Copy Roid" which wielded a spear with two pyramidal ends to it frizzling with electricity while using a red light-saber: Twilight had been looking on and he told him to stop.

"This basement is handy."

"Truly."

The basement had some "Copy Roids" leaning against the north wall and a pair of chairs along with a desk and a bottle of water plus two plastic cups: it was made of reddish brick and a pair of fluorescent light tubes provided light to the place.

"So that Thor fellow went down… It's obvious that Gate was merely aiming to stall for time. Speaking of stalling… I had the Snatcher duo face off against the "future" Metal Gear RAY… Heh, heh, heh."

He brought up a holographic screen displaying a "Dimensional Area" encompassing the harbor and its docks: two "Cross Fusion" users could be seen fighting inside of that.

"That's the Analog Snatcher, Leo."

"I thought his name was Charles."

"It's a joke."

"Ah. No wonder."

"… Damn! This thing's DEADLY!"

"No wonder, Charlie~ Team."

"CF" Charles' design included red boots and forearms along with brown chest armor which had a golden cross set on the middle of it: matrixes of on/off squares colored green and blue spread across his forearms and legs.

His helmet's forehead had a blue hexagon-shaped jewel set on its center which was glowing with a pale sapphire glow while his eyes' irises were blue: a mouth-guard having an outer golden edge and a main silver body formed over his mouth.

A backpack with two exhaust tubes colored silver and golden materialized and attached to his back while extending four red lines arching over his body and creating a bluish ring around the chest emblem with four small black rectangles having a red dot on their center.

He had some extra armor coiling around his right arm too and he wielded a pyramidal energy saber colored blue.

"Che! Lander! Any ideas?"

"Well… Maybe if we try to blow up the weapons on the arms… Then we might reduce its potential."

The "Cross Fusion" form retained most of Lander's normal form.

Differences included a coat of arms – like pattern on the helmet's forehead: Martin's hair came out from behind the helmet.

The shoulders remained anatomically correct and had brown leather armor over them.

His arms and elbows had switched to a turquoise color: the forearms (colored dust brown) had some black crisscrossing patterns drawn into them and which looked thicker than Lander's: they glowed with a soft blue glow as well from time to time.

His main body also gained the Alphabet letters "M" and "B" colored red and black each and set left and right beneath the shoulders.

A set of three parallel green lines descended from beneath each letter and then joined into a thick one which ended on a waist belt having two pouches for the Colts.

The legs contained two circling orange bands set above and below the knee which had metallic gray dots drawn at random inside of them.

The boots were white: they had a faint white color like they'd worn out.

As a final detail he sported a cowboy – like hat colored brown and white over his head.

"Fine! Let's go, Charles!"

"Ou! Martin!"

"CF" Lander jumped atop the right shoulder and drew two Long Swords to cut a rotating three-barreled weapon there to pieces along with part of the armor: the arm broke free and hit the ground while "CF" Charles dodged a burst stream of plasma and landed atop the robot's head to start hitting it with his sword weapon: the RAY jumped and they lost balance so they ignited their jets to fly into the air as it landed back into the ground and began to shoot beacons which hit the floor followed by missile and machinegun fire.

"Che. How annoying! Twilight! This thing's harder than Liquid Ocelot's own RAY!"

"If only we had a REX to battle it…"

"We'll have to do without that! Let's go! Program Advance! Justice Blade, Triple Slot In! Golden… Blade~!"

"Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Dream Sword!"

Both attacks cut off the neck of the robot and the head hit the floor to bounce once or twice before rolling to a stop: the robot collapsed face-down on the ground and all of it got deleted.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh… I hope you liked the heating up, Snatcher Duo!"

"And they don't realize… That the "Sith" will soon rise… Heh, heh, heh..."


	9. Chapter 9: Terror of the seas

**Chapter 9: Terror of the seas**

09:27 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday March the 17th…

"… That's the place. A tanker hijacked near Yokohama…"

"And I smell who's behind this."

Enzan and Laika were riding a red IPC chopper towards a tanker which looked empty and deserted: the chopper touched down on the deck and both of them stepped out.

"No welcome committee?" Laika wondered.

"Hmpf. They gotta be about to come." Enzan was unimpressed.

There was a rumble and "Dimensional Converters" emerged from various spots in the deck, trapping the tanker inside of a "Dimensional Area" space.

"Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!"

Both Enzan and Laika performed "Cross Fusion" flawlessly and looked around to see a figure walking out from inside of the tanker and towards them: both of them aimed their weapons.

"Welcome." The figure greeted.

"You!" "CF" Blues recognized him.

"As we suspected! This was your doing - _Njord_!" "CF" Laika accused.

Njord chuckled and casted asides the cloak covering his new sea blue colored body armor with white patterns on it.

"Unlike Thor… I analyze the methodology of a battle and know how to react properly." Njord claimed.

"What advantage does a tanker give you and why did you need to hijack it to begin with?" "CF" Blues demanded.

"Tanker…? Hah, hah, hah…" Njord laughed.

"What's so funny?" "CF" Laika questioned.

The whole ship rocked and the sound of a rope snapping in two because of pull force could be heard: a whole square section of the deck opened and they all fell into a lower level's narrow wooden catwalk.

"Wha?"

"What in the…"

Looking around, they realized that the tanker was not a real tanker: it was a wooden structure designed to emulate a tanker, like the ones used for filming movies.

"By all the…" Blues cursed.

"What a panorama." Search Man growled.

The whole interior was just narrow wooden catwalks interconnected by crossways: various wooden columns set on the crossways supported the light and fake deck: the hull was made of wood as well and it looked rather thin.

"You set this up just for the sake of luring us?" "CF" Blues asked, surprised.

"I didn't set it up myself. This was used for a film's special effects. The whole command bridge structure is a simple wooden panel in which a projected image is being displayed." Njord chuckled.

"Damn. One fake step and we'll fall into the water. And one wrong shot can make the whole thing collapse with us inside of it." "CF" Laika hissed upon realizing how dangerous this battlefield was.

"Hah, hah, hah! Now you shall know the terror of the sea in its pure and raw form! _Maelstrom_!"

A _maelstrom_ formed inside of one of the squares scattered all around the area: the structure began to move slightly and creak so both Net Saviors looked around, gasping in fear.

"_Maelstrom_!"

More of them began to pop out, making the whole structure creak and move: both Net Saviors were barely managing to keep their balance.

"Grah! Freeze Bullet Mode! Shoot!" "CF" Laika hissed.

"Battle Chip, Long Sword, Area Steal!" "CF" Blues announced.

"CF" Laika began to shoot at the _maelstroms_ and freeze them while "CF" Blues warped towards Njord, who was hovering above one pool, and carefully tried to hit him with the Long Sword.

"Heh!"

Njord, however, merely disengaged his flotation ability and let gravity make him fall into the ocean.

"Whoa!"

"CF" Blues landed on the other side while making sure of pointing the Long Sword to the ground so as to avoid cutting down any columns.

"Damn! Blues! Enter scan mode! We need to track him!"

"Roger, Enzan – sama!"

"Nordic Harpoon!"

"What?"

A projectile hit "CF" Blues' back with force and got stuck there: the hit made him loose his balance and he was about to fall into a new _maelstrom_ which had formed on the spot Njord had dived into the water.

"Je-Jet Vernier!"

"CF" Blues ignited the jets on his boots' soil and hovered above the water: he looked around to try to see from where the attack originated.

"He was right behind me, wasn't he?" He muttered.

A strong hand closed around his right foot and tugged him downwards all of sudden.

"Ah!"

He was pulled into the water and felt himself spiraling around without control and being unable to see anything.

"Ugrhj!"

The next moment, a trident had been plunged into his upper torso and he was being lifted: he was propelled out of the water with force and he crashed his back against one column, weakening it.

"Grah! Laika! Freeze this one!" "CF" Blues cursed.

"Roger!"

"CF" Laika quickly froze the column while "CF" Blues tried to recover and tried to guess from where would his enemy strike from next.

"Scuba Missiles!"

Tens of missiles began to pop out from the water and shoot out in random directions: "CF" Blues wasted no time and began intercepting them while "CF" Laika froze them and made them fall back inside of the water.

"He's trying to destroy the support columns! I guess we'll have to freeze all of them and all of the water to reduce the danger!"

"However! The water's temperature is rather high! So, at the maximum, the ice patches will only last five minutes." "CF" Laika warned.

"Grah! That's another reason while he picked this battlefield… He wants us to waste our energies into stopping it from collapsing on top of us and then deliver the _coup de grace_!" "CF" Blues realized next.

"Scuba Boomerangs!"

Several blue-colored boomerangs came out of the water and headed towards the columns: "CF" Blues intercepted them while "CF" Laika tried to freeze the squares to limit the number of places Njord could attack from.

"So? Can you feel the creeping angst? Do you feel the terror? Do you feel the fear? They will completely overwhelm you two until I send you to rest inside of a watery grave!"

"There are speakers hidden in the ceiling! That's why we can't trace him just by the volume of his voice!" "CF" Laika cursed.

"This is way too unfair. Let's make it fair." A new voice announced over the speakers.

"Who the…!" Njord cursed.

A plume of water followed by two masses broke through one frozen square and landed in the outer rim.

"Hrah!"

One of the masses was Njord, who looked taken aback.

"You lowlife!"

The other was Omega, who was smiling and had his O – Saber drawn out.

"Omega! You're just the guy we needed!" "CF" Blues sighed in relief.

"We were about to be overwhelmed!" "CF" Laika added.

"My, my… So… Our old salt water sailor likes to play instead of fighting like a man?" Omega mocked.

"Watch your words, Messiah of Death!" Njord told him.

"Sorry. But the title is _Dark_ Messiah. You got it half-wrong."

"It matters not! I shall make you join those two in a watery grave!"

"You're one to speak! But did your Boss, Odin, tell you how I defeated him in less than three minutes and he being unable to strike back at me?"

"Impossible!" Njord gasped.

"He didn't want to admit his own failure, huh? What a snobby guy."

"Silence! I shall destroy you impudent heretic!" Njord aimed his trident at Omega.

"Wrong."

Omega quickly cut the trident in three pieces and they all hit the water: he grabbed Njord by his neck, crouched, and suddenly jumped upwards, breaking through the wooden ceiling and emerging into the air.

"Freeze!" Omega's voice rang out.

Something shiny shone for second as it plunged back into the water, causing a large plume to appear.

"And say "bye"..." Omega added as he gracefully landed back into the outer rim.

A plume of water emerged from the square and extended for about two meters before collapsing.

"I sent him down with a present." Omega smirked.

"You froze him?" "CF" Laika assumed.

"Yup. I used my O – Buster's new technique: Ice Spread. Then, I broke a hole and attached a bomb into him. There's no doubt that he's a goner and he is the one sitting in a watery grave by now."

"Phew! This only leaves Odin… I'm sure you'll be able to take care of him."

"Yeah, I'll take care of Odin. Nelaus will have to deal with Gate since their stuff is rather personal. Boss and the others will focus on trying to corner the Desert Wraiths." Omega confirmed.

"Okay. Let's scram and warn the port authorities that this thing is a dummy."

"Dummy Man and Nam Ymmud!"

"Cloud Man, huh."

Cloud Man's usual image formed there and he was accompanied by the "Talon" who kept their arms folded: they suddenly shot two knives with a scroll of paper rolled on them at the columns and they got stuck there: both vanished with a bright flash so Omega picked one paper and unrolled it to read it up.

"Huh? "Geipab. I just patented a new _Star Wars_ planet. _Have at ya_!"… As smug and weird as ever..." Omega grumbled.

"Let's just scram before this damned place sinks."

12:04 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Welcome to my…"

"What is the matter? Has the cat gotten your tongue, fair lady?"

Ms. Glassy had turned from cleansing a glass exhibit containing a book by a famous magician and had felt all blood on her body froze upon spotting Chief Lezareno inside of the store.

"Eh… No…" She quickly replied.

"Ms. Elizabeth Glassy… Or should I call you Ms. Oracle, former collaborationist of the FOD?" Chief Lezareno smiled.

"What are you talking about?" Ms. Glassy tried to waltz out of it.

"We have realized everything… Gate sure was yearning for info on Mr. Rainon so he came up with this idea. It has evolved on its own, but, even so, there has been deceit."

"Y-you have no proof!"

"We do. Searching Gate's lab computers… We found your email address and several of the mails which you interchanged."

"T-that's not possible!"

"It is futile to pretend, my fair lady. However… Given the fact that people do seem to appreciate your work and that Gate no longer cares for your info… I shall let you go. I must warn you, though, that any attempt to use that information for either extortion or blackmail will result in your detention. Do have a good morning."

Chief Lezareno quickly walked out of the store and closed the door behind him while Ms. Glassy sat down in a chair and panted heavily.

"Too close… That was too close…! I will do what he says… I will not try to use this info against anyone…" She muttered.

"Ah! One more thing. Don't try to incite Ms. Tamashita to dig up Mr. Rainon's past anymore. I hope you understand the lesson. Goodbye."

11:09 AM (Mongolia Time)…

"… And this is what I've been working on. What do you think of it, Scorpion?"

"Terrific…"

Meta had shown Scorpion something on his laptop's screen and Scorpion seemed to be fascinated by whatever it was.

"With these tools… We can implement mistrust and chaos." Vulture told Cobra.

"Excellent…" Cobra looked awed as well.

"What are you boys staring at? Did you win the lottery?" Viper asked as she walked in.

"Or did you win an Online Casino game?" Bella giggled.

"This is serious, Viper. Look." Meta told her.

"Have a look as well, Bella." Vulture added.

They looked at whatever was on-screen for a minute or two and gasped.

"T-this is…!" Viper looked taken aback.

"I-incredible…!" Bella gasped.

"So? Have I proven that I'm serious?" Meta asked them.

"This _is_ the future." Vulture announced.

"With these… You could win over anyone and anything!" Viper realized.

"They're worthy of the title "Ultimate Weapon"!" Bella giggled.

"Heh, heh, heh. Yeah… These will be amusing to see."

"By the way, Viper… Is it me or you're eating a lot of military rations?"

"I like them: they're energetic."

"Whatever. Let's get ready to deploy these into the field. Heh, heh, heh."

14:15 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hello there."

"You're that freak prankster!"

Aura was alone in the classroom during lunch break time and had been working with the school's laptop when someone had contacted him.

"So? I do suppose you have been able to find out something. Is that not right?" The man asked.

"Why should I? There are limits to how far a person can snoop into an acquaintance's affairs. I'm no Government agent." Aura rolled her eyes.

"… I was under the impression that all _Mademoiselles_ did like to snoop around…" The man sounded slightly surprised.

"That may be in the movies. But this is reality. Get lost."

"Do you know what a "clone" is?" The man suddenly asked.

"Of course. It's a popular sci-fi trend. I know there was a sheep named Dolly which was created via a complicated "cloning" process, but it died over six years ago. _Episode II: Attack of the Clones_… Clone War… _Batman_ also stars a lot of clones too…"

"Well then… Genetically engineered humans _exist_."

"Please. Who's gonna believe that?" Aura rolled her eyes and sounded totally annoyed.

"Question Nelaus Rainon." The man incited.

"I won't. I won't let a weird guy force me to do things I don't want to."

"Che. You are harder to convince than I had thought… I'm off."

"He must be a former Mafia guy who wants to get back to Nelaus – kun for giving himself up to the Net Police and allowing them to dismantle them. And to try to undermine his reputation, he comes up with this idiotic stuff. I'm too intelligent to fall for it, Mafia guy. Try selling your story to Hollywood instead: you'd make a fortune out of it. Tee, heh, heh."

14:52 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hum. Someone's coming… Mr. Prism Man."

"Just obey the protocol."

Two Security Navis were standing guard near a firewall along with Prism Man: a standard Navi with the Science Labs logo walked towards them.

"Please identify yourself." One Security Navi requested.

"Roger."

The Navi displayed a holographic screen which listed its authorization level and department.

"All is in order. You may proceed." The Security Navi confirmed.

"Open up." Prism Man commanded.

"Thank you."

A doorway was opened and the Navi walked inside: he crossed several pathways filled with other Navis going up and down until he reached a small Cyber World: the Navi accessed one server terminal and downloaded some data.

"Download: completed."

A familiar blackish substance suddenly formed around his body and, when it dissolved, he had gained the form of a Police Navi.

"Transforming: completed."

The Police Navi undid the earlier path and walked towards another two Security Navis checking out exiting Navis.

"Good afternoon. I am to deliver some information to Superintendent Manabe of the Net Police. Here's my authorization code." The Police Navi announced.

"Understood. Go through: the code's valid."

"Thank you."

"Open up."

The Police Navi walked away and exited into Internet City: they looked around before entering a side alley.

"Revert to default mode."

The blackish substance covered it and quickly disappeared, leaving a mannequin-like body reminiscent of that of a Copy Roid's.

"Enter."

The Navi walked into a Reverse Cyber World pit located in front of it and jumped inside of it and dived towards the Reverse Cyber World while the entrance was sealed up behind him.

"… Heh. Interesting."

Swallow Man had been standing atop a building and had seemingly seen what had happened so he rubbed his chin.

"I think I get the grace of it…" Twilight chuckled.

"Wasn't it obvious, Twilight – sama?"

"Heh, heh, heh. "Oh foolish one. The Cryptum shall become thy grave and Charum Hakkor's Ancient One shall torment you even in the Afterlife: thou have been warned."… Dragon Hell's newest banner…"

"Heh. I hacked the forum he visits." Twilight admitted.

"Hah. Not bad." Yamato Man sounded amused.

"It's clever. Too bad they need to wait 3 years to realize the point."

"Heh, heh, heh… 43 years of chit-chat… According to the _Halo 3_ terminals… Guess they did breaks from time to time as their experiments continued… Isn't it amusing? "LF – Xx – 3273" was the denomination for the "Captive"… And if only we broadcasted its replies… People would start trembling in fear… Heh, heh, heh… I feel in a good mood!"

"Glory to Twilight – sama! Death to the weaklings! Death to the Desert Wraiths! Hah, hah, hah…! Gate… You lowlife are done for: be gone!"

16:39 PM (Japan Time)…

"… We're home!"

"Welcome back!"

The twins reached their home and switched their sneakers for the slippers before climbing upstairs into their bedroom and stretching.

"I've got news, guys. Commander Omega, Ijuuin - kun and Laika - kun got rid of that Njord dude." Blood Shadow reported.

"Mwah, hah, hah… Two down, one to go!" Sigma laughed.

"That's good to hear. We're getting rid of the headaches in a steady manner." Netto smiled.

"And soon enough, there shall be no more headaches. "And then there were none"…." Saito smirked.

"Oi! Don't bring up that book… I read it 'cause you insisted and it spooked the hell outta me…" Netto admitted.

"Who would've said it? I do hope nobody out there tries to emulate it."

"Enough with your black humor… Let's get working on our stuff."

"Heh, heh, heh! You win, Mr. Perfect!" Saito chuckled.

"Call it off already…" Netto rolled his eyes.

"Mwah, hah, hah! Those who leave are gonna go to Bert Saxby's adjacent abodes 'cause his one is overcrowded!" Sigma joked.

"Yeah. And then Vincent comes and tells them his impossible to translate puns." Blood Shadow looked like he was rolling his eyes under his shades.

"They'd make a good tag combo!" Saito grinned.

Saito, still looking animated, also began to take out his school materiel and work on it while chuckling from time to time, to Netto's dismay.

_Man. Niisan got another of his "weird" moods: I dunno how he finds the humor to that creepy book of his… Whatever. Let's just continue…_

15:47 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… Hi there~… Mr. Twilight."

"The _bad girls_ came."

"Ah. Excellent. Welcome. Darth Bapgei. Bring some tea and cookies."

"Roger, Master."

"Isn't he cute~?"

"Hmpf. Guess that."

"You look in a good mood."

"Hah. That idiot Gate's pawn will soon be scrap. The fool just thought he was being clever but he was improvising… Please… What can 3 guys do against over 15 defenders?"

"Good point."

Viper and Bella walked into Twilight's living room: he greeted them with a grin and Philip simply headed off to the kitchen to bring what Twilight had ordered: both women sat down on the sofa and Twilight picked a chair across the room behind the table.

"So? None of them suspect anything?" Twilight asked.

"Nope. They're more concerned with their new toys."

"Tee, heh, heh. Scorpion – dono seemed to notice a higher consumption of military rations but Viper – sama pretended she liked them."

"Heh. And they'll get cocky and forget about it. Good."

"The tea and the cookies..."

"Good. Go to your room: you're in leave."

"Roger, Master."

"Tee, heh, heh. He's my type." Bella giggled.

"Oh yes. He's a very good masochist, true. But I'd rather not push it."

"Wise enough. Why's that Dr. Gate guy so obsessed with that Rainon boy, anyway? The Deadly Pandora servers didn't say anything save that he'd quit the band." Viper asked.

"Ah. The guy is jealous that IQ – sama paid more attention to him than his own hide. Gate did what he had to do and if he'd just stayed in Schneider Inc. or moved to another weapons industry company then he'd saved himself trouble but the guy thought he could earn merit from IQ – sama by putting up a show. IQ – sama merely says it's entertaining but she reminded him that _kyoudai_ has been unable to seize me ever since 2 years ago." Twilight exposed.

He served some tea and offered it to Viper who drank some while Bella whistled a tune in a distracted manner and glanced around the living room as if studying its decoration.

"True. You're more random and you bring real terror. Heck. That whole deal with ripping off the PKMN from Nintendo's servers 2 years ago was surprising enough and you keep on reminding them you could unleash all kind of video game stuff into the real world. Last summer you did it with the "Gekkou" and the Internet City building takeover."

"Yeah. Gate was only trying to impress but History will surely say he was an _amateur_ who attempted to shine but will always be overshadowed by me: even IQ – sama agrees on that so…"

"OH YEAH! LET ZA GATES HIT ZA DOORS!"

"Cloud Man!" Freeze Man growled.

"YIKES!"

"I'm about to explode into pure anger!" He hissed.

"UO~H!"

"He ran." Cosmo Man drily reported.

"Huff. Guess I'll need to go to somewhere in the Himalayas to meditate at this rate if this fool keeps on bothering me during my critical meditation sessions: you can't live like that. I'm off." Yamato Man growled.

"Jeez. What a guy." Swallow Man complained.

"Odd. The "other" Cloud Man was more serious. Guess being around too much time has had some influence… Sigma and Shadow Man gotta be to blame too…" Twilight muttered.

"Guess that." Bella shrugged.

"So? Is there something else Rock Man can do apart from the "Soul Unison" and "Cross Fusion"?"

"He's got a very powerful form dubbed "Saito Style" but he only used it once about 4 years ago. Guess it's become dormant by now. And I don't think he sees a reason to use it anyway."

"Excellent. By the way… What about that "Past" guy? The biker? I've heard that he hit a facility in Dark Land even."

"That "Priest" guy behind him must provide him with "Dimensional Converters" but I don't care. _Kyoudai_ doesn't mind the guy because he's doing them a favor. Guess "Priest" is interested on dismantling those 'cause the guy must've experienced the REAL S&M…" He sneered.

"Oh my. It wouldn't surprise me." Bella giggled.

"Maybe I can figure something out yet… Should we assume "Priest" is a foreigner to begin with?"

"Huff. I dunno myself." Twilight admitted with a shrug.

"Then it'll become hard to figure out. And if we don't know their age either… Guess they'll eventually make a move. And then we'll be able to figure out if the guy's aiming for something else or not."

"Good. But for the time being… Cheers. For the success of our scheme..."

"Oh yes. Cheers. For the success of our scheme…!"

"Cheers!"

"Net Saviors… You will soon realize what the real "terror" and "fear" mean… Especially you, _kyoudai_… Tremble! Shiver! Heh, heh, heh…!"


	10. Chapter 10: Of mimics

**Chapter 10: Of mimics**

11:04 AM (Japan Time), Thursday March the 19th…

"… At last they fired those two idiots and brought in new ones! It was about time!"

"Yeah. The bureaucracy is so slow…"

Netto and Saito were talking about something during break time: they'd apparently decided to stay on the classroom today.

"They all used us to channel out their bad mood at losing _Mahjong_ games and didn't care if they pushed us to our physical limits… They should have realized that they wouldn't get away with it." Netto was grumbling.

"Yeah. Good riddance, as they say."

"By the way… Did you hear? Apparently… Some info regarding access codes for several parts of the Science Labs' Network were stolen… Papa and the others have been frantically changing all them and re-issuing them. The Net Police has been unable to trace the one who leaked the info to the black market."

"I'd heard of it. During the times when the data was accessed… Only one entry and one exit were registered: a Science Labs Navi working in the R&D lab and a Police Navi carrying some report for Superintendent Manabe… However… That report never reached her. What's more: she hadn't requested it to begin with. The Navi had faked an authorization notice."

"Somehow… This reeks. I believe the Desert Wraiths had something to do with it…" Netto brought a hand to his chin and frowned.

"Yeah. They could've infiltrated both Vulture and Cobra using avatar programs to pass as another Net Navi. They must be desperate to gather money to fund their operations."

"No wonder. And Twilight's being very quiet too… Save for the RAY thing."

"Yeah. But that was to tease us… The real stuff is yet to come… Che."

11:23 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Hum… Hum-hum-hum…"

Number Man was humming a tune as he and Aqua Man worked on organizing and classifying a new cache of Battle Chips they had just received.

"Pyururu~? Where does this one go to? Pyu?" Aqua Man asked while holding a case containing Long Sword Battle Chips.

"This goes into the "Sword" category. But the shelf is too high for you to reach. I'll put it myself." Number Man replied.

He placed the case on the shelf and whistled a tune.

"There."

Suddenly, and without warning, a figure came out of nowhere, grabbed the case, and ran out through the backdoor, pushing Aqua Man to the ground on its wake.

"T-thief! Someone stop him! Aqua Man! Stay here!"

Number Man ran out, locking the backdoor behind him.

"There!"

He soon spotted the thief: they were wearing a large navy blue robe with a hood.

"Thief! Stop!"

They were running very fast across the side alleys like they knew them from memory.

"Stop! Give it back! Stop! Halt!" Number Man yelled.

The thief glanced backwards and sped up while Number Man was beginning to get tired.

"Grah! Somebody stop him!"

"That's as far as you come."

Three or four _shuriken_ rained down and stuck on the ground in front of the thief thus forming a line: the thief tripped and fell into the ground face fist, dropping the case.

"Off!"

Before they could try to pick it up again, though, Shadow Man dropped in and grabbed it up.

"Hmpf. You lowlife were trying to steal stuff from my favorite store? You lowlife will end up in the brig." Shadow Man scoffed as he tossed the case back at Number Man.

Oddly enough, the thief began to giggle and slowly stand up before exploding into laughter.

"What the…? A woman?" Shadow Man wondered.

The thief grabbed the robe with their right hand and pulled it before tossing it away.

"Hah!"

It turned out that _Roll_ was the thief: she had a smug smile on her face.

"Y-you're…!" Shadow Man uttered.

"Roll – chan? What does this mean?" Number Man asked.

"My! It was a joke… April's Fool will take place in about two weeks, but I couldn't resist the temptation to pull a joke on you, Number Man." She replied in a weird-sounding tune of voice.

"Hmmm… Something about your voice feels out of place." Number Man told her.

"… Was this your idea or your Operator's idea?" Shadow Man questioned.

"It was mine, obviously enough… Meiru – chan is on the midst of the institute class…" Roll giggled.

"Hello, Number Man! How are… WHAT?" A voice began to greet behind Number Man only to yell in surprise.

Both Shadow Man and Number looked in that direction to see _another Roll_ standing there and looking totally baffled.

"W-where did that other me come out from?" She asked.

"Che! I've been found out… So long!"

The thief Roll suddenly was covered in the familiar blackish mass and reverted to a standard female Navi's form: she jumped towards a building's wall and used it to jump towards the one across the street: she repeated the process until she reached the roof and ran away jumping across roofs.

"What the hell was that?" Shadow Man asked to no – one in particular.

"That black mass… Wasn't that the same thing that Shadow Devil monster was made of?" Miyabi recalled.

"It's the work of the Desert Wraiths, then. We should try to apprehend her."

Before Miyabi could add anything, Shadow Man dropped a smoke bomb and reappeared on top of a building.

"What's going on?" The real Roll asked Number Man.

"That imposter tried to frame you by stealing my case of Long Sword Battle Chips." Number Man summarized.

"Bloody those guys!" Roll cursed.

"I'd say you better stay out of sight… I'm sure no one saw what happened, but just to be on the safe side…" Number Man suggested.

"Okay. See you around, Number Man."

Roll walked away while Number Man sighed and undid the path to return to Higureya.

"Jeez. As if Meiru – chan's bad mood wasn't enough… She needs to accept it: and, besides… Does that stop Netto – san and her from being boyfriend and girlfriend? No. Nothing's change. Meiru – chan's stubborn moods…"

"There."

Shadow Man was pursuing the impersonator Navi across the rooftops of Internet City: the impersonator would sometimes throw Mini Bomb Battle Chips at some rooftops to weaken them and prevent Shadow Man from using them.

"Hah. That won't stop me, you damned fake."

However, Shadow Man was too smart for that, so he used the handrails instead.

"_Shuriken_ Needles!"

Several _shuriken_ rained down around the impostor, limiting her movements: one of them hit her on the back of her right foot and got stuck there.

"Grah!"

The impostor tried to take it off, but, at that moment, Shadow Man caught up to her and aimed his _katana_ at her neck.

"Confess. You lowlife work for the Desert Wraiths! Isn't that right? It's futile to pretend." Shadow Man told her.

"… Hmpf. This is just a test drive. The real terror is forthcoming, Net Savior… Long live to the Great Lords!"

The impostor Navi began to emit bursts of white light from her body and energy began to build up.

"Shit."

Shadow Man jumped down the building and landed down on the street just as an explosion wrecked the rooftop and caused it to collapse and fall inside of the building's topmost floor.

"It's confirmed, then. They plan on spreading confusion and forcing us to fight our allies by mimicking them." Miyabi commented.

"Yeah. That's how it looks like. Let's get outta here."

11:33 AM (Japan Time)…

"… History repeats itself, huh? It's similar to what happened over a year ago with "Sidier" and "Emperor S"… Those "Duplicates" of existing Navis which would come out to give us trouble..."

"So it seems."

Vadous didn't look in a good mood after getting a hold of the news Omega had brought over.

"Grftx! We must get rid of both Odin and Gate soon enough to focus all of our energies on tracing these guys… I think that they must use some kind of nanomachines system on these "mimic" Navis to recreate the skin and shape. They surely must have been observing some of them to check their acquaintances and their relationships… They're getting serious." Vadous grumbled.

"Yeah. I'm going to try to locate that Odin rascal. I'm sure he's itching for a rematch."

"Do so. Nelaus will take care of Gate once he shows his ugly hide around."

"OK."

"…invoke the anger of the _Santenou_…"

"Three Heavenly Kings? Why not invoke the _Five Sacred Blades_ which showed up in _Tales of Symphonia_?" Vadous sighed.

"Guess he doesn't know what they are."

"…countless Demon God Swords…"

"Odd. One of Lloyd Irving's first known moves is "Demon God Sword": but maybe it's a coincidence to begin with." Omega muttered while rubbing his chin.

"Yeah. Just get moving and beat that jerk already."

"Roger."

"And once those two parties are gone… Twilight! I'll catch you yet. Hmpf."

11:44 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Hmmm… Not here?"

Omega was investigating a Cyber World somewhere which looked dusty and abandoned.

"Die."

A sword suddenly flew towards him from the north-east: Omega ducked and skidded across the ground to dodge as the sword hit the ground and got stuck there.

"Odin. Show your hide around. I know it's you." Omega called out.

Odin appeared next to the sword and drew it, letting light illuminate it.

"We meet again. This time you shall be buried in the Nifelheim." Odin declared.

"Who was the one who gave you a beating down last time, hmmm?"

"This time I shall be victorious."

"Less talking: let's get down to business." Omega challenged as he ignited his O – Saber.

"You asked for it, Red Demon!"

Odin wielded his sword and began to charge up energy into it before hitting the ground with it and causing eight straight lines of white energy to originate from that point: tall and narrow energy shockwaves travelled across the lines at a mad speed and very close to each other, making dodging very hard.

"How's that?"

Omega, however, smirked: he simply charged up his gun and broke part of the ground, causing a small crevice: the energy hit the chunk of broken terrain and was stopped by it.

"Your attacks can only travel across straight and smooth surfaces. By slightly curving this chunk of terrain… I've been able to nullify it."

"Che."

"You're all the same: you rely more on trying to impress or scare your opponents than in real power." Omega told Odin.

"Be silenced!"

Odin wielded his sword again and shot out a straight beam of energy towards Omega: Omega merely used his double-jump technique and aimed his gun at Odin's face.

"Burn 'till only cinders are left."

Omega shot a plasma ball towards Odin: he brought up his shield and blocked it, but it was melted by the high temperature of the plasma round, which also provoked another eight smaller rounds to bounce off the shield and hit several parts of Odin's body armor, melting them off.

"What in the…!" Odin cursed.

"I made some modifications to my gun. I try to emulate real plasma's properties. And your armor wasn't designed to deal with _plasma_ of all things."

"I shall destroy you!"

Odin formed something similar to a "Dark Chip" but which had the a logo (the international radiation symbol with circuitry patterns drawn over its surface) instead of that dome thing and the body was orange in color: its logo glowed with an orange glow.

"That's…!" Omega recognized it.

"_Atomic_ Chip! Engage!"

The Chip began to glow and eight streams of energy carrying small spheroids alongside them flew out of the Chip's logo and into Odin's chest emblem: a menacing orange glow formed behind him and he began to chuckle.

"I thought none had survived the destruction of Atomic Network's mainframe!" Omega cursed.

"Hah! Wouldn't you know? I found this in a corner of Deadly Pandora's server… Maybe one of the Atomic Network agents was carrying it but dropped it and didn't realize the fact." Odin chuckled.

"Damn!" Omega hissed.

"Experience the power of the Lord of Gods! Ragnarok!"

Odin tossed the sword aside and built up energy on both hands: he shot it towards the sky, causing a kind of portal with a circle containing Nordic runes on it to appear. Incandescent meteors began to fall down from it and hit the ground, leaving burning craters behind.

"Come down, my faithful warriors! Slay this demon!"

Four _Valkyries_ appeared by riding down the Bifrost rainbow bridge while the music from the opera echoed around the space.

"By the will of our Master, you shall be slain!"

"Scope Gun!"

"Sonic Boom!"

"_Shuriken_ Needles!"

"Eat this!"

The four attacks caught the _Valkyries_ off-guard and pushed all of them back for some centimeters: Omega looked behind him and spotted Blues, Search Man, Shadow Man and Zero there.

"Guys! What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Vadous rang us up. He admitted that you were having slight complications." Zero admitted.

"We'll take care of these lowlifes. You take care of the head honcho."

"They are cheap, after all." Blues smiled.

"Cheaper than a Sword Battle Chip, even." Search Man smirked.

"I owe you one!" Omega admitted.

"You'll have plenty of chances to return it. Let's go, guys!" Zero rallied them.

"By the Valhalla! This can't be happening!" Odin cursed.

"It can be happening. Say farewell, Odin!"

Omega suddenly dashed forward leaving a trail of "afterimages" on his wake while the others kept the _Valkyries_ busy: he jumped two times into the air and plunged his O – Saber into Odin's chest emblem: it glowed and Odin roared.

"T-the power… the power is vanishing…!" He roared.

"It'd seem Atomic Network built these things based off a Dark Chip's basic structure. My Vaccine Chip Program seems to be taking effect."

"DIE!"

Odin tried to punch him while his right punch was surrounded by fire, but Omega jumped over it and drew this O – Buster: he shot a ball of plasma at Odin's face, charring it and momentarily blinding him.

"The final blow!"

Omega back flipped while in the air and took out his O – Saber again: he plunged it into Odin's chest emblem again, this time reaching further in thanks to his earlier wound.

"I am - A GOD! I am - INMORTAL! I am - ODIN! I am - GRUO~H!"

Odin's began to emit white bursts of light from his body and build up energy.

"Let's scram!" Omega told the others.

Odin's bomb program went off, sweeping the ground with it and destroying the _Valkyries_ as well

"Huff. The goons are gone. Gate comes next. The guy's turning into a mad jerk: and he could try to slaughter Akihara Town to lure Nelaus out. That's why we gotta beat the guy: Nelaus and Isaac will surely find a weakness."

13:23 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… Phew."

"Phew Man!"

"Cloud Man. Go pick on that Gate guy."

"Not yet."

"You like to pick on me?"

"Guess so, Bapgei!"

"Huff. Master is going to get ANGRY and you know that."

"Mwah, hah, hah."

"CLOUD MAN!"

"Yikes!"

"See?"

"GET OUT!"

Philip had been reading a novel in the bedroom when Cloud Man's holographic screen displaying a close-up of his face popped up and he began to grin: Philip was unimpressed and Twilight got annoyed as he called out from the ground floor.

"Tactical withdrawal!"

"Huff. That guy…" Zoan Gate Man complained.

"I know. He's annoying. I was enjoying _2061: Odyssey Three_ and he had to come and begin to bother me."

"Sorry. Let's continue with the planning."

"Sure."

"Things are advancing. Meta and Scorpion are engrossed with those mimics and keep on planning new "mimicking" strategies: Vulture and Cobra do as told and they're not bothering to think 'bout us two."

"Excellent. As we'd predicted."

"Here's the data we agreed on." Viper announced.

"… Ah! I see. Good, good. Hmmm… Maybe I could lend you a device which could be helpful."

"Good, good."

"Twilight! You lowlife! Found you!" A voice rang out from the Cyber World.

"_Herr Doktor_. Welcome to the party, my dear."

"You've betrayed me! You've betrayed IQ – sama too! What "Demon Tribe"! You lowlifes are but a bunch of defectives!"

"Oh? Maybe IQ – sama would object."

"Yeah. Gate. Get lost. I should've deleted ya like Oswell E. Spencer did with the architect Trevor after he completed the Spencer Mansion off Raccoon City." A woman's voice joined the conversation.

"IQ – sama! That can't be! That's an imposter!"

"Oh yeah? 1 year, 10 months, 5 days, 14 hours, 56 minutes."

"T-that's the time I spent to fully build the "Palace"! Nobody but me and IQ – sama knew it! It was never written down!"

"Isn't that proof enough? Now get lost: you fail at "burying" Nelaus over and over again. I've had enough of failures."

"B-but Twilight there!"

"Twilight fled the DNN Studios 'cause I ordered him to."

"That cannot be!"

"Cha time is over. Was over long ago."

"Impossible!"

"Not impossible at all. Go try to "bury" Nelaus but I've got the hunch that lil miss is skeptical about your approach. Anyone would be. Even me."

"But I thought curiosity…"

"…would get the cat? People nowadays know better not to butt too much into others' stuff or they get into trouble. That lil miss found out about the cover but got afraid and didn't dare to push it. I'd done the same."

"H-however…"

"Don't cut me!"

"Yikes."

"Hmpf. That's it. Go battle Nelaus in that pit and let's see which of you will end up in Hell. Maybe Twinrova will pick you up and disguise you as Ganondorf for the next game he's featured in."

"T-that cannot be…"

"Get lost. Twilight. Cut the guy off."

"Roger."

"DAMN YOU, TWILIGHT! I'LL… KZZZ!"

"Huff. That guy needed a lesson." Philip muttered.

"So! Back to business, my _dears_." She apparently addressed the visitors next with a hint of amusement.

"Roger, miss." Viper giggled.

"You know of it?"

"Twilight's been briefing me. Amusing."

"Thanks for the complimenting!"

"It boosts us up." Bella giggled too.

"I'm glad to know it. And soon… They'll see how clever we really are. They think I can't do anything from this Louisiana prison but they're wrong."

"Truly."

"Glory to IQ – sama and the Secret Empire! We shall be victorious! Hah!"


	11. Chapter 11: Face off

**Chapter 11: Face – off**

10:10 AM (Japan Time), Saturday March the 21st…

"… Here again…"

"This time's the last tone…"

Nelaus walked down a descending path until he reached a valley formed by two mountain ranges which started on that spot: there was a wide and deep shaft on the middle of the valley.

"Been waiting…"

A figure could be seen standing on the other side of it while the sun was beginning to rise above the horizon.

Nelaus tossed aside his raincoat and hat. He took out his Synchro Chip and walked forward looking determined.

"So… You've come. Nelaus." The figure announced.

"The same applies to you - Gate."

Some of the sunlight illuminated the figure: it was a Navi.

His eyes' irises were purple and his face looked like that of a man on his early twenties.

His helmet's forehead had a four-pointed-star-shaped azure jewel set on it.

He sported golden colored body armor with some white patterns on its surface.

His chest emblem was the purple lowercase "gamma" letter: he wore a white silk cape which came out from behind his shoulders.

"I have been waiting for this day." Gate announced with a broad smirk on his face.

"So have I. Let's get down to business. Only one of us will leave this place alive." Nelaus coolly replied.

"So be it."

Gate snapped his right hand's middle fingers and several "Dimensional Converters" emerged thus covering the valley in a "Dimensional Area".

"Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!"

Nelaus performed "Cross Fusion" flawlessly and took out a Long Sword: Gate merely let the wind flutter his cape.

"This time, I shall be the winner. And I shall prove my worth to IQ – sama forever!" Gate proclaimed.

"Hmpf. Gloat while you can." "CF" Nelaus scoffed.

"I'd rather say Etag's outdated."

"Damn you! Twilight!"

"Ex – _senpai_ came out to see, huh?"

Twilight, having some Navi armor over his body, had appeared there along with the "Talon".

Twilight's armor design was highly reminiscent of Rock Man's one.

He wore a helmet with a mouth guard activated: his eyes' irises were visible and it could be seen that they were colored crimson red.

His chest emblem consisted on just two shades of black and white split by a horizontal grey line.

He had two curious shoulder pads which were shaped as two split halves of a diamond.

His main body's color was navy blue although the forearms and his boots were colored in purple.

A black smooth cape hung from the back of his shoulders and reached all the way to the floor as well as an add-on to his bodysuit.

"There's a VIP Spectator."

"Hiya~… Nelaus – chan."

"Ex – Boss. So you dropped by."

A holographic screen displaying a woman's face opened.

She looked on her late 20s or early 30s and had blue eye irises along with orange-like hair.

"IQ – sama!"

"Fight." She commanded in a sinister tone of voice.

"Che! Super Vulcan!"

Gate morphed his two arms into two Super Vulcan Battle Chips and began to shoot a string of bullets towards "CF" Nelaus.

"Hmpf."

However, once they made contact, a cloud of smoke popped out and a dummy appeared on his place: a rain of _shuriken_ fell down and hit the two Super Vulcan Battle Chips, making them explode.

"What!"

"CF" Nelaus landed near the edge of the pit and quickly checked that Gate was undamaged except for a few burnt marks on his hands' white gloves.

"Hmmm… Let us fight in the ancient way, then. Long Sword."

Gate drew a Long Sword and quickly teleported to appear in front of "CF" Nelaus: they clashed blades and struggled in the deadlock: Gate looked very confident of himself while "CF" Nelaus was unimpressed.

"Heh. It'd seem your training still works, Twilight."

"So it'd seem, my lady."

"Eat this." "CF" Nelaus coolly announced.

"Ugah!"

Gate recoiled due to the close-quarters hit he had received: "CF" Nelaus had drawn a Gold Fist Battle Chip and hit Gate's lower torso on the left side: Gate checked the area and spotted a slight mark signaling where he had been hit, but his armor looked intact: Twilight chuckled.

"Heh, heh, heh."

"Tee, heh, heh."

"Death Spheres!"

Gate waved his right arm towards the right and three energy spheres colored purple flew towards "CF" Nelaus.

"Hmpf."

He sliced them into pieces with his Long Sword and used the Long Sword as a kind of tennis racket to hit them back towards Gate: a faint purple aura formed around his body and the spheres were absorbed into it: his earlier burns and markings vanished.

"Hmpf! Did you really think I would overlook what led to my failure last time? Any attacks shot back at me recharge me." Gate smirked.

"Bah. No – one is invincible. Your pawns claimed to be out of delusion just like you." "CF" Nelaus scoffed.

"Tee, heh, heh."

"Truly."

"I am not going to let your words get me angry, which is another reason I failed last time." Gate smirked again.

"Nelaus. Remember the Physics classes: energy is not destroyed and doesn't disappear. It always has to go somewhere." Isaac told him in a hushed tone.

"Oh! Then… If he keeps on absorbing energy he'll reach a limit and it'll surely collapse due to insufficient mass to hold it together. Let's try it. It's worth a shot." "CF" Nelaus whispered back.

"Whatever you plot it's futile! Go to Hell!"

"Zoan Gate Man will provide a door there for free and without any taxes to pay." Twilight joked.

"Tee, heh, heh."

"Hmpf." The "Talon" wasn't amused.

Gate appeared all of a sudden behind "CF" Nelaus and was aiming his Long Sword towards "CF" Nelaus' back.

"Jet Vernier!"

"CF" Nelaus quickly flew skywards with the aid of his jets while Gate stopped himself just in time to avoid falling into the pit: he ignited some jets on his boots' soil and flew skywards as well.

"Death Spheres!"

"CF" Nelaus cut the three new green-colored spheres into pieces and shot them back at Gate, who absorbed them and fully restored his armor.

"Futile!"

"Che. You don't know when to realize that the system which created you is gone. You're like one of those Neo – something people." "CF" Nelaus grumbled.

"Maybe I am." Gate smirked.

"Then prove your own power."

"You asked for it."

He opened a large ellipsoid-shaped purple rift and shot out nine spheres colored purple, orange and green.

"Battle Chip, Neo Variable Sword! Sonic Boom!"

The Sonic Boom sliced all of the spheres into smaller pieces and "CF" Nelaus shot them back at Gate, who kept on absorbing them.

"Keep at it, Nelaus! I can detect the beginning of an unstable chain reaction… Piss him off so that he doesn't notice and tries to vent off the energy…" Isaac reported in a hushed tone.

"Oi! Gate! You're wearing make-up! Aren't you?" "CF" Nelaus mocked.

"How dare you!" Gate roared.

"You stole it from Maria's bathroom! Right?" "CF" Nelaus mocked next.

"Oh my." "IQ" or, rather, Maria, giggled.

"Heh."

"DIE~!" Gate roared.

He shot another nine spheres at "CF" Nelaus, who cut them with the Sonic Boom and made Gate absorb them: his aura was beginning to flicker by now.

"Let him absorb another round and the energy will detonate. The most probable outcome is that his whole armor will be vaporized and then we can finish him off." Isaac reported in a hushed tone.

"Besides… Did you never try to kill Marco? He was your rival to gain Maria's affection! Wasn't he?" "CF" Nelaus kept on mocking.

"If I had done that I wouldn't be standing here today!" Gate hissed.

"And if you wanted to get at Mr. Vadous or Twilight over there, why didn't you try years ago?" "CF" Nelaus challenged.

"Truly. Tee, heh, heh."

"Good question, my former apprentice…"

"I'd been busy working in the weapons industry and experimenting with new unmanned weapons! It wasn't until the "PW" deal began that I got to learn what had happened in the DNN Studios!"

"Hah. Didn't bother to do the homework…" Twilight mocked.

"Shaddup!"

"You're telling me to shut it?" Maria challenged back.

"I mean that traitor!"

"Twilight ain't a traitor: you're but a deluded fool. I said it: your time to shine was long, long ago~…"

"I'll bury them!"

"Bite me, then!" "CF" Nelaus challenged.

Gate shot another string of energy sphere and "CF" Nelaus returned them wholly: his aura was now flickering on and off even after it had ceased absorbing the energy.

"Keep him busy for a few seconds… Try to push him to the ground. This way the mass will become further unstable and will detonate quicker."

"I've got one message from Mr. Vadous for you, however! It says: hi and bye! Battle Chip, Tank Cannon!" "CF" Nelaus announced.

"Heh. As expected of _kyoudai_…"

"Yeah. As expected of the guy."

"CF" Nelaus drew the Tank Cannon and shot it at Gate's chest, pushing him back and leaving a noticeable dent on it: he crashed with his back into the ground and quickly stood up, but he seemed to realize something.

"W-what's wrong with me? My body… it feels heavy…! But there's no hyper gravity here…! What in the…?" He muttered.

His aura reappeared and began to change its spectrum until it reached a white blinding light status: his whole armor shone and seemed to be shaking and moving.

"Oho. I see."

"Cool."

"I-Impossible! What does this…?" Gate cursed.

A brutal explosion of pure energy came out of apparently nowhere and encompassed almost fifty meters of terrain.

"Gura~h!"

"There it goes: the Big Bang."

"Tee, heh, heh, heh."

"Did that do it?" "CF" Nelaus wondered.

Gate's armor was history and most of his body had been deleted: only a basic purple armor was left, and it was heavily damaged: Gate was on his fours and panting heavily.

"Impossible…! I could absorb back my attacks…! There was no bomb anywhere…! How did it…?" Gate hissed.

"You forgot your Physics classes: energy isn't created or destroyed. It always changes and goes somewhere. In this case… The absorption ability of your armor gave you near-immunity. But you kept on building up energy within your body mass. Eventually… It exceeded your body mass and the distribution of its atoms became unstable so the only way to be released was to detonate upon itself with this result." "CF" Nelaus revealed.

"I am to be defeated by my own power again…? What mockery is this…?"

"It's no mockery. It's merely a result of Maria's utter paranoia. She saw you as a useful goon but never trusted you fully. She obviously programmed your body structure to be vulnerable to your own attacks in a fit of irony she came up with. Blame her for this." "

"No…! Her Majesty… Would not do such a thing…! I was her most loyal agent…! If Vadous hadn't existed… If you lowlifes hadn't existed… I would have been… her Heir!" Gate hissed.

"Pf. Deluded until the end, huh? I'll put you out of your misery. Say farewell, Gate. I already deployed a program inside of this "Dimensional Area" which prevents normal log-out or log-in." "CF" Nelaus announced.

"Heh. That's why I did it, yeah. I thought it'd be fitting."

"Truly."

"Damn it! I can still fight…! I'll take you lowlife down with me…!"

Faster than could be expected of him due to his condition, Gate leapt to his feet and tackled "CF" Nelaus: they both fell into the pit and Gate's body began to emit white bursts of light and build up energy.

"I won't let you lowlife take me down like this! Battle Chip, Salamander!"

The fire which surrounded "CF" Nelaus' body made it impossible for Gate to hold on, since his own body was being set of fire.

"Krugra~h!"

He roared in agony as he slid off "CF" Nelaus and fell towards the depths of the shaft while "CF" Nelaus flew upwards.

"NO~!"

A brutal explosion originated from some point in the depths of the pit and flew upwards, resulting on a brutal column of white energy hitting the topmost spot of the "Dimensional Area" and causing the "Dimensional Converters" to frizzle.

"The Big Bang V2."

"Hmpf."

"Tee, heh, heh, heh."

"CF" Nelaus, however, had already come out of the pit and was standing near the crater caused by the explosion of Gate's body armor: the "Dimensional Converters" kept on frizzling and eventually exploded due to the energy overload, brusquely disabling the "Dimensional Area": Twilight chuckled aloud.

"Well. Let's go, Talon."

"Roger."

"See cha 'round…"

Twilight formed a round purplish "gateway" and both ran inside as the holographic screen vanished.

"They've run." Isaac warned.

"Whatever."

Nelaus' "Cross Fusion" form reverted into his Link PET, which fell down from the air: Nelaus easily caught it with his right hand and felt how the wind swept across the battlefield.

"Nelaus? Do you copy? This is Vadous." Vadous' voice came over the radio.

"I copy."

"Good job out there. I've confirmed Gate's demise. It was impossible for him to log-out this time around." Vadous told him.

"… He's gone at last." Nelaus grimly muttered.

"And this only leaves the Desert Wraiths… I think I'm close to locating their HQ. You should go and rest a bit."

"We did it, Nelaus. This time we beat the freak."

"Yeah. We sure did." Nelaus calmly replied as he picked his raincoat and shook the dirt off it.

"… So… That's what it was about, then?" A familiar voice asked from behind him.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Another voice added.

Both men felt a shiver go down their spines: Nelaus slowly turned around to see Aura standing behind him: Felicia was projecting from her Link PET.

"That weird dude was a Net Navi whom you knew?" Aura asked Nelaus.

"H-how did you get here?" Nelaus asked.

"I followed you. Ever since Thursday… You looked like you were going to face something… So I decided to follow you in case you got into trouble and needed help. And the presence of those three did creep me."

"Will you explain to us what's going around here?" Felicia asked Isaac.

"It's… rather complicated." Isaac improvised.

"… Why don't we go to my place and talk it a bit?"

"Sure."

"We hope to get the details of this affair, Isaac – kun." Felicia told him.

"I'll try to."

13:54 PM (Japan Time)…

"… You're a persistent one… Ursula."

"Don't tell me."

Martin had stumbled upon Ursula while inspecting an abandoned apartment building and he'd found her sitting in an armchair inside of the living room.

_So! The email about this place having clues regarding the Desert Wraiths was hers to lure us here. _Martin realized.

"Martin! How's it going over there…? Hey! Isn't that Ursula?" Charles had walked into the room and was surprised as well.

"Hullo, Charles. It's been a while, huh?" Ursula greeted with a smirk.

"Oi! Don't tell me you want to recruit me into the Air Force… I know we cooperated in an investigation regarding some embezzlement of a subsidiary company years ago but I thought you'd forgotten about me by now." Charles rolled his eyes.

"Women _never_ forget, Charles. That's the problem when dealing with them." Davis grumbled.

"Ursula. This is ridiculous. Shouldn't you go your own way instead of misleading us?" Martin exasperatedly asked.

"Who knows?"

"I do!" Lander smirked.

"Let's forget about her… We need to find other leads."

"Yeah. I'll ring your daddy, Ursula. I'd say he won't be happy to learn of your actions." Martin announced.

"What? You cannot!" Ursula gasped.

"We can and we will. And I'm not threatening you. I'm just trying to make you realize how stupid your acts are. Let's go, Charles. I prefer battling Viruses to having to deal with her selfish moods. See ya around."

"Oi! Wait!"

Both played deaf and got down into the street: three persons approached them from close by.

"Hi~… Charles – boy~…"

"You're Jasmine, one of the Cypher field agents, right?"

"Yeah."

Jasmine was a girl on her late teens or early 20s.

She could be over a meter and eighty tall and had short black hair.

She wore a black short-sleeved t-shirt along with black jeans, fingerless black gloves and black sneakers.

She also sported a pair of sunglasses over her eyes.

"Yo. Justin. Say hi and bye."

"Jeez."

Justin could be 3 to 4 inches taller than her and around her age.

His hair was colored green.

"And George says bye and hi."

"Come on."

George had blonde hair and could be 1 or 2 inches shorter than Justin.

"You dropped by just to kid?" Martin sighed.

"Kidding Kiddo's roaming close by so we came to fetch the bounty~ to give it to Boba Feet…"

The other two guys slapped their faces out of frustration.

"Let's go, Bounty Squad!"

"Jeez. Jasmine! Give us a break!" Justin complained.

"We're fed up with these silly rhymes!" George groaned next.

15:45 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Pass."

"Domino!"

Netto and Saito had been playing domino in their house's living room: Saito had had to pass and Netto had placed his last piece on the table.

"Heh, heh! I have three victories insofar!" Netto grinned.

"And I have two. This is some kind of twisted math logic, then." Saito raised an eyebrow and sounded rather sarcastic.

"Who knows?"

"Next round is mine." Saito

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… They do like to compete, huh?" Sigma commented to Blood Shadow.

"Yup. They sure do."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah…Those ugly dudes… They'll fear my sword."

"And I'll have them fear my little shotgun.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… I'd rather say Bert Saxby is building a new abode for 'em." Sigma joked.

"And they'll be in charge of the furniture."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Provided by Vincent "Red" and his Vincent Red Workshops: Totally Red Patriotic Furniture~!"

"Oh come on. Don't involve the guy."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Domino Man and Nam Onimod will get involved from the end to the start and vice-versa~…"

"Jeez."

"Really…" Netto sighed.

"This guy…" Saito rolled his eyes.

15:54 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So… Where should I start at?"

"Why did that Navi try so hard to stain your persona?"

Nelaus was talking with Aura inside of his house after having prepared the usual tea.

"It was simple: he believed himself to be the most trusted goon of the Mafia boss, so he was jealous of me getting her attention. He came up with all of that silly stuff to try to split you from me and maybe hope I'd even go crazy or something along those lines." Nelaus explained.

"You know… The other day he was talking about cloning and genetic engineering… And he told me to question you about this stuff… He'd made it up, right?" Aura assumed.

"But of course he had… Any scientifically educated person knows that this stuff is pure sci-fi." Nelaus smiled.

"By the way… He also told me to look up "Gondwana" and "Deadly Pandora"… Gondwana is normally associated with the theory of tectonics and was one of the landmasses formed upon the breakout of the Pangea supercontinent… It's also the name for an abandoned Indian research outpost in Antarctica… And hose photos I got by post mail were from that place… But I'm sure that the weird room was made up with a program…"

"But we did remember that those "Deadly Pandora" guys had hijacked the DNN Studios last summer along with some guy named "Twilight"… But what link is there between you guys and them? Does it even exist or was another of that guy's fabrications?" Felicia asked Isaac.

"He made it up… We admitted having been members of a Mafia but we were based on Chicago… Deadly Pandora had its base on the Pacific Ocean…" Isaac replied.

"I knew it! It was defamation!" Aura grumbled.

"Yeah. But the guy was the persistent type, so he summoned us to a showdown to settle the matter once and for all."

"I thought as much!"

"And I don't know how much you saw, but I had no other choice but to delete him or he would have killed me. Twilight and some other woman began to look on along with that freak but just wanted to look on and not get involved."

"You two did the right thing! He was a freak and a weird dude! Society doesn't need this kind of gangsters! And, besides… They could've done something horrible to others just to get at you!"

"Thanks for the compliment."

"All that is left is dismantling those Desert Wraiths… And I'm sure we're close to it." Nelaus admitted.

"Good! Without big bad guys around then things will be way more peaceful."

"That's obvious, Aura – chan."

"Do you want some snacks?"

"Sure!" Aura confirmed.

"I'll go fetch them." Nelaus announced as he left the Link PET on the table.

He entered the kitchen and looked inside of a cupboard to find a bag containing some salty peanuts: he opened the bag and deposited them into a ceramic platter.

"Life is going to get better from now on." He muttered.

"It'd seem the "then there were none" strategy is progressing!" Isaac whispered to Nelaus.

"Heh, heh. True. Whyte's ghost came out and dragged that guy to Nifleheim." Nelaus grinned.

"He must've believed he was gonna steal Shady Tree's show outta him."

"That guy would've eventually quit were it not for Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, who went outta their instructions, even." Nelaus sounded rather amused.

19:50 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… So that Dr. Gate guy's a goner. Heh."

"They were foolish."

"Too foolish. Anyway… I've realized someone new is snooping around you guys as if hoping to locate you guys' base…"

"Someone new? That "Past" fellow?"

"No. I think they're solo."

"Solo? Han Solo's evil step-brother?"

"Hah! Good one, Ms. Viper."

"Thanks."

Twilight (having switched back to his civilian outfit) was having another chat with both Viper and Bella: both looked amused.

"OH YEAH! LET ZA GATE HIT ZA FRAME!"

"Cloud Man. Quiet."

"Yikes!"

"Really…" Bella sighed.

"He's too troublesome." Viper sighed.

"Are you sure those two can't contact you?"

"I always tell them I turn off communications for safety and they don't mind that. They've been playing around with the "mimics" and stealing bank money thanks to them in sub-developed nations. I'd rather say they're getting way too cocky even."

"We've got no interest on that: our "experiment" is more interesting than what those bad boys plan." Bella giggled.

"True, true…"

"So? What do we do with that solo guy?"

"Leave it to me… I'll handle them somehow. As always."

"Deal."

"I've come back from scouting with the Legion 64… Everyone's shift of attention is, as expected, with the Desert Wraiths. They suspect somewhere in the Gobi Desert." Zoan Gate Man reported.

"My. It was too obvious, really, but Meta…" Viper sighed.

"Vulture… You've made it too obvious, really…"

"Don't mind that. You must make sure all's ready for the next week: I've got a hunch things will accelerate next weekend. What's the latest data you've collected? Have you begun the next stage?"

"Of course. It's working insofar."

"Maybe by Thursday it'll be ready and Friday will be spent with some final testing to be ready for the weekend."

"Good. It'd be fitting to make them face "them"…"

"Oh. Truly." Viper giggled.

"That'd be fun to see."

"Did my tools help accelerate the process?"

"Yeah. We use them to speed up the stuff but we're careful of putting limits: we don't want to fully overdo it… yet."

"Of course, Viper – sama. It must be functional."

"Excellent."

"And those guys have zero clues… Tee, heh, heh. They're SO blind."

"Blinded by their cocky mood."

"Of course: and by the time they realize they'll have to admit you always were above them and had far more intelligence than them."

The three of them either chuckled or giggled under their breaths…


	12. Chapter 12: Light VS Ghost

**Chapter 12: Light VS Ghost**

08:18 AM (Japan Time), Saturday March the 28th...

"… Hmmm… Space Weather News… YouTube subscriptions… Huh? Anonymous mail…? How did it get past the spam filters?"

Saito had been checking his email right after waking up: he was surprised to find one anonymous mail the "subject" of which stated the following:

"URGENT AND IMPORTANT."

Saito shrugged and double clicked it to open it: h only found a set of coordinates inside of its body.

"Hmmm… Let's try using Goggle Earth to find out to where do this point to." Saito muttered.

He accessed Goggle Earth and copy – pasted the coordinates into it: the map displayed a patch of the Gobi Desert towards the south-east: switching to satellite imagery, he found out that there seemed to be nothing in particular there.

"Hmmm… Blood? Are you there?" Saito called out.

"Yup. What's up, Saito – kun?" Blood Shadow asked as he appeared on the southern right corner of the screen.

"Could you bring these coordinates to the HQ and ask Omega to use IR imagery to find out if there's anything hidden here?" Saito requested.

"Sure. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Blood Shadow logged out from the PC while Saito leaned the chair backwards and seemed to be thinking about it: two hands were placed over his eyes all of sudden.

"Guess who I am." An amused voice told him.

"Netto – kun. April's Fool is not due 'till Wednesday." Saito replied.

"I saw you looking so serious! What's up? Did you win a prize?" Netto asked with a grin.

"I got a set of coordinates via an anonymous mail and I asked Blood to check the place with IR imagery. I have a hunch."

"What? Do you mean…?"

"Yeah. I'm waiting for confirmation." Saito confirmed.

Blood Shadow appeared onscreen again.

"Yeah! There's a whole military base hidden by a stealth field… And they have several _Bifrost_ units parked on the outside! There's no doubt about it! We've found them!"

"What?" Sigma was surprised.

"We can finally take them down."

"Yeah. Let's get ready. Today is going to be one of those important days."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Time to make them fear my babe~…"

"Don't get cocky."

"Let's fix the beds, get dressed and have some breakfast."

"Roger."

Both quickly got dressed and fixed the beds before they rushed downstairs, surprising Haruka.

"You look in a rush today… Has something happened?" Haruka asked.

"Yeah. We found the bad guys."

"… Oh. So you're going to fight them?"

"There's no other way around, Mama. But we'll make sure not to get many bruises." Saito smiled.

"That's good, dears. As long as you come back safe and sound then I'm not worried. I'll prepare curry for tonight."

"Thanks." Netto smiled.

"Good – bye!"

07:59 AM (Mongolia Time)…

"… Currently on landing approach…"

Three of the Sub Space shuttles silently landed near the edge of the stealth field: the hatches opened and various persons stepped down.

"We've arrived."

Enzan, Laika, Dark Miyabi, Martin, Charles, Nelaus, Blood, Sigma, Omega and Netto came out: Saito had obviously transferred into Netto's Link PET and had left his cyborg body inside of the craft.

"Don't fret. The craft has an automated defense system." Omega whispered to Netto.

"How do we get inside of the place?" Netto asked.

"Blood. Sigma. Scout the area. Use IR vision to locate any sensors and momentarily disable them."

Both Navis slowly walked forward and soon vanished upon crossing inside of the stealth field: the group waited for a minute or two in the midst of the absolute silence of the desert: the sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon.

"Hum. Desert Man would feel at home." Shadow Man tried to joke.

"Wasn't that obvious?" Davis dully asked back.

"Heh! It reminds me of the Far West." Lander grinned.

"Hmpf." Search Man was unimpressed.

"Desert nomads, huh?" Blues sarcastically muttered.

"Sure." Isaac shrugged.

"Guess that." Rock Man muttered.

"Keep it quiet, guys." Omega whispered.

"Of course. Else "Hush" will come impose his Curse of the Silence and force us to skip our Turn at the cost of 750 LP."

"… OK! We managed to reprogram a backdoor's alarm to make the guys think it's still closed. We didn't see any CCTV cameras on the outside. There were some laser sensors but they're clustered around what has the looks of a hanger and the main entrance. The backdoor is clean." Blood Shadow reported as he and Sigma returned.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… The insides are unlit. You should use the IR goggles we handed out to find your way around. If we get into a fight we can quickly call for a "Dimensional Area"..." Sigma added.

Everyone nodded and walked forward, thus crossing the field.

"There it is!"

The base itself was a large upper-half-of-an-hexagon-shaped building colored metallic black, about two hundred meters large, a hundred meters wide and ten tall.

The roof had a large satellite dish on it along with a radar system which was currently inactive as well as several solar arrays.

The group entered through the backdoor and put on their IR goggles.

"Let's make pairs. Hikari: you'll come with me. Sigma and Blood will go together. I'm sure Ijuuin and Laika don't mind tagging. Martin and Charles make a good tag, too. Nelaus, you're with Miyabi. If you want to report then use the encrypted frequency: 141.80." Omega instructed.

"Reminds me of _MGS_… The Codec…" Charles grinned.

"Chut." Martin scolded.

Netto and Omega walked down a corridor, always stopping to make sure there weren't CCTV cameras or sensors hidden: they spotted a room's door with the following label.

"VIPER & BELLA"

"Stay aside. I'm going to scan." Omega instructed.

Netto quickly nodded and leant his back against the wall: Omega scanned the room and found no heat signatures.

"Guess they're early birds… No one is there."

"Omega? This is Nelaus. We found Meta and Vulture's room but there's no one." Nelaus reported.

"This is Charles. We found Scorpion and Cobra's room, but it's empty as well. Guess they're all in a meeting or working on something in the basement…" Charles reported.

"This place has a basement, too? We'll try to find the entrance." Blood Shadow muttered.

"We've found a storage room containing several _Nibelung_ units. They're all inactive, thank God." Laika reported.

"Let's continue. Remember: we must make sure not to warn them to our presence." Omega warned.

Netto and Omega continued forward and found a set of descending stairs: Omega scanned all the nooks and crannies around it and found nothing odd, so they climbed down the stairs and spotted a door:

"LAB #1"

"… I can detect _one_ signature inside of it… There seems to be some kind of machine. Maybe it's a generator. Let's ignore it." Omega told Netto.

They walked past it and walked down another corridor: Omega suddenly stopped and brought out his O – Buster: some soft steps could be heard.

"Calm down: it's us." Charles whispered.

"Ah. Did you find anything?" Omega asked while storing the gun.

"We found a storage room full of provisions. There's enough to feed them for a whole month." Martin reported.

"How are the others?"

"We've met up with Ijuuin and Laika." Miyabi reported.

"We found a freeze room storing meat, fish and other stuff." Blood Shadow reported.

"Heh. We're converging towards your location." Sigma chuckled.

They continued forward and turned a corner only to find a "Dimensional Area" wall blocking off a heavy steel door with the following label:

"MEETING ROOM"

"Crafty! Aren't they?" Omega grumbled.

"There must another way around. We'll go look for it." Nelaus suggested.

"Yeah. We'll hide nearby while the others go look around."

Omega and Netto headed into a storage room nearby and closed the door: the room only had spare furniture such as wooden chairs, a desk, a tall lamp and light bulbs.

"… This is Charles. We found the west wing of the basement, but the other entrance to the meeting room is blocked off, too. We did find restrooms and shower rooms along the way." Charles reported.

"Che. Isn't there any room close by?"

"Yeah. There's an empty storage room just next to the meeting room: we're going to place a microphone." Martin announced.

Some static sound could be heard for a few seconds before some voices came in through the microphone.

"… And thus, with the last black market transaction… We've gained 12,000 Credits." One man's voice was reporting.

"Good." Another commented.

"You look suspicious today." A third man's voice was saying.

"Oh my, my. Do I, Scorpion?" A woman's voice asked with obvious amusement.

_Viper!_ Netto grimaced.

"What are you up to today?" A fourth man's voice questioned.

"Don't be paranoid, Cobra." A second woman's voice replied.

_Bella!_ Saito also grimaced.

"Ignore her, Cobra. You know how she likes to toy with us." The first man grumbled.

"Yeah. You're right on that, Vulture. What's that stuff in Lab #1 which is emitting heat, anyway? You changed the password." Cobra questioned.

"An experimental dynamo." Bella quickly replied.

"Is that so? Why didn't you tell me, Viper?" The second man asked.

"Don't worry, Meta… It's just a test drive." Viper told him.

"Hmpf. Setting that aside… We should come up with another operation involving our Mimic units." Meta shrugged.

"Maybe we could play mirror." Viper suggested.

"Play mirror? What does that mean?" Scorpion didn't seem to get the meaning.

"Simple: let's pitch the Net Saviors against themselves." Bella announced.

All of the listeners gasped at the words.

"I love how that sounds like." Vulture chuckled.

"I once read a proverb which said the following: "One's greatest weakness is its own existence."… You got inspired by that?" Cobra assumed.

"You could say so."

"We should go see if the dynamo produced any satisfactory results. See ya around." Viper announced

"Ah!Don't forget to bring the wall up once you leave!" Meta reminded her.

The sound of footsteps going away could be heard: the east wing door opened and both women stepped out, closing it behind them.

"Let's lock and clock."

"Not bad, Viper – sama."

Viper took out a remote from her skirt's right pocket and turned off the wall: they both walked past it and Viper quickly brought it up again.

"Dynamo… Hah. They fell for it. Our experiment is way better than a mere machine. Thanks to Twilight's help…" Viper smirked.

"So it is, Viper – sama. It should be about to produce a satisfactory result and Twilight's help will have been worth it." Bella bowed.

"Let's go check on it." Viper kept on smirking.

Both women walked away while Netto and Omega frowned.

"What do we do?" Netto asked Omega.

"Hmmm… The other guys can keep track of what do those other guys do. We should try to find out what they're up to. Maybe Twilight will drop by given their chat." Omega suggested.

They both waited until no footsteps could be heard and came out of the storage room: they tiptoed until they reached the lab's door and listened in.

"… And thus, given these readings… It should be ready by now. If Twilight's data is right, that is." Viper could be heard saying.

"It has taken time and effort but we also had fun along the way. Consulting Twilight was totally worth it too. Save for Cloud Man's random parodies." Bella giggled.

"We sure did. I can't wait to see the fruits of our experiment... And Twilight's as well…" Viper sounded eager.

"I cannot, either." Bella admitted.

Netto frowned and tried to think up what could they be referring to.

"Omega… I think they've designed some kind of powerful Net Navi." Netto

"I was thinking along the same lines. Twilight would like to bring further headaches to us. The guy doesn't change: he's been behaving like that ever since 2 years ago." Omega grumbled

They suddenly heard some beeps and a sound similar to vapor escaping out of an oven: a small buzz sound echoed.

"Hullo." Viper could be heard saying in a soft tone.

"… It looks like it's not fully conscious…" Bella pointed out.

"Then, why did the EEG readings…? You're not telling me it's entered a coma!" Viper could be heard complaining.

Both Netto and Omega looked at each other with surprised faces.

"They've been doing something to a person!" Netto whispered.

"Those two are crazy." Omega grumbled.

"Damn it. Twilight! I knew nothing good could come out of that."

"… No! Look, Viper – sama! It seems to be reacting!"

"Ah! That's something… Can you hear me?" Viper was questioning.

"… Nod if you can hear us." Bella ordered.

"Ah! It has nodded… Do you know who we are?"

"… It seems that, for the time being, it cannot communicate orally. Maybe we did go a bit over the board."

"Che. Anyway… Do you know what this is?"

"It seems to recognize the device."

"Engage the tube." Viper commanded.

The unmistakable sound of a "Dimensional Area" forming could be heard.

"Why would they want a "Dimensional Area" if it's a person…? Ah! Maybe they've tried to brainwash it and then assign him a Navi to perform "Cross Fusion" and fight against us!" Netto quickly guessed.

"So it'd seem." Omega made a grimace.

"What a bunch of psychos: they've obviously tortured this person with their S&M sadism stuff. Hence why Twilight was involved!" Saito cursed.

"Can you try using this?" Viper could be heard asking.

"Are you ready, Wraith?" Bella asked someone.

"I am always ready." A male Navi's voice replied.

"Rest assured… We altered this thing so that it won't cancel out your consciousness… Rather, it will trigger this one's other consciousness."

"I understand."

_What! Cancel a Navi's consciousness… They plan on using a "Dark Synchro Chip"!_ Netto gasped.

_But it sounds like they've turned it around! They want the Navi to control that person's body and trigger something like a split consciousness on it!_

"… Da-Dark Sy-Synchro Chi-Chip… S-Slot I-In… C-Cross Fu-Fusion…" A crackled voice slowly announced: it seemed to be aphonic, but the tone was that of a young boy's.

_It's a guy!_

_We must do something!_ Saito insisted.

There was a roar of pain and some sounds which died down soon enough.

"… I am Ghost. I serve Lord Wraith and the Desert Wraiths. Command me." A dull and emotionless voice intoned.

_This must be what they meant by "triggering its other consciousness"! It's a totally brainwashed consciousness forced to obey that Navi and those two! _Netto felt all blood on him freezing.

_I can't stand this anymore! We came to catch them, right? Let's get them! _

"… Omega. I can't stand this anymore. They've gone too far. Besides! We came here to capture them, didn't we?" Netto told Omega.

"Damn it. I agree. Guys! Try to break into the meeting room and apprehend them. Throw the stealth over the board. We're going all out."

"… Is it me or did I hear someone's voice out there?" Bella was wondering.

"You're imaging things." Viper replied.

"It may be so…"

Netto took out his "Synchro Chip" and stood ready.

"Boss? Do you copy? We need the "Dimensional Area". We're going all out."

"Okay. Good luck." Vadous replied.

"Thanks."

The familiar colors of a "Dimensional Area" filled the corridors.

TATATARITATARI!

A cavalry trumpet sounded not too far.

"Wasn't that a trumpet?" Bella asked.

"Cobra must be fooling around." Viper shrugged.

An explosion sounded not too far away.

"Surprise! You ugly dudes! The cavalry is here!" Charles' voice announced.

"This time I'm sure it wasn't my imagination!" Bella sounded nervous.

"Can't be helped…" Viper grumbled.

"Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!" Netto and Saito announced.

"What in the…!" Viper cursed from inside of the lab.

Netto and Saito easily performed "Cross Fusion" while Omega took out the door and ran in followed by "CF" Netto: they stopped dead on their tracks immediately enough.

"By all the…"

The room only contained a central cylindrical column with a small inverted-cone-shaped capsule pointing towards the groun: its cover was open, revealing an empty leather seat, some harnesses, a helmet and an oxygen mask.

"The Net Saviors!"

"Che!"

Both Viper and Bella were standing at both sides of it.

"… Target: located."

However there was someone else standing in front of the capsule: Cross Fusion "Ghost".

"That's "Ghost"?"

He seemed to be about a meter and seventy tall.

His eyes' irises were crimson red and didn't display any particular emotion.

The _kanji_ for "Sabaku" or "Desert" were painted brown and set against his blackish helmet's forehead.

His mouth guard had the Alphabet letters "RIP" drawn on its surface and colored purple: an eerie jagged edge circled the inner side of the boundaries of the mouth-guard.

His bodysuit's main color was deep red with black patterns travelling from the end of the shoulders (anatomically correct: colored purple with silver plating over them) and across the arms and elbows before stopping on the wrists.

The forearm gloves used black as color along with circling round white bands having 8 golden dots set on their surface: 3 of them were present on each forearm.

The _kanji_ for "Yuurei" or "Ghost" painted black and set against a white background were drawn on his chest emblem's surface.

He also had several bronze-edged circles drawn around his chest containing the _kanji _for both "Hakaba" and "Bochi", meaning "Graveyard" and "Cemetery".

He also had two white-colored skeletal wings emerging from his back.

"… What is that warrior? Are they my opponent?"

"Y-yeah! Take them down!" Viper quickly commanded.

Both of them ran out of the room while the other two were focused on the adversary.

"What should I do?" Omega asked "CF" Netto.

"… We're going to free him. If things look ugly then we'll radio for help."

"If things look ugly we'll radio for help…" A weird-tuned voice resembling that of Omega's rang out from behind them followed by a weird-tuned chuckle.

"Huh?"

Omega turned around to see a "Mimic" unit which had assumed his form and looked almost identical expect for the hollow eyes, some out of place colors and the lack of hair.

"Hmmm… This should be intriguing." Omega smirked.

He ran out of the room and the Mimic followed him.

"… I know who you are." "Ghost" announced.

"I'm not surprised. I used to be pretty famous. And if Twilight was involved then he surely mentioned me." "CF" Netto replied.

"My Mistresses have plans for you. I shall capture you alive."

"I'd say they won't have much time to worry 'bout that. There are another eight guys here." "CF" Netto smirked under his own mouth guard.

"… Sandstorm."

"CF" Ghost drew something similar to the Cold Wing Battle Chip and made the fan turn on, projecting sand around the room and creating a sandstorm replica.

"Like that'll impress me."

"CF" Netto, however, brought up some shades he'd programmed and started to scan: his opponent was still in front of him.

"Battle Chip, Tank Cannon! Slot In!"

"… Dead Spirits Shield."

A purple mass formed in front of "CF" Ghost and the attack was bounced towards the right wall, making a dent there: "CF" Netto let the recoil push him back while he analyzed the "Dead Spirits Shield".

"Hmmm… Aha. Battle Chip, Long Sword, Area Steal! Double Slot In!"

"CF" Netto warped while his opponent stood still, seemingly not used to this technique.

"Turn 180º around." Wraith's voice commanded.

"CF" Ghost slowly turned around and the Shield protected his front.

"Gotcha!"

"CF" Netto appeared from the right side and cut off one of the wings, which was emitting a purple aura: it fell into the ground and its data broke apart: half of the "Dead Spirits Shield" disappeared.

"One!"

"CF" Netto quickly cut off the second wing and the remaining half of the "Dead Spirits Shield" disappeared as well: he jumped some meters backwards when he was done.

"What?" Wraith was surprised.

"Heh, heh! Did you think I wouldn't know you'd turn around by expecting me to hit your back? You certainly didn't think that it's possible to strike from the sides as well!" "CF" Netto chuckled.

"Why, you…!" Wraith hissed.

"… Curse of the Graveyard." "CF" Ghost announced.

"Heh, heh, heh. That'd be my input."

"Twilight. You moron. I knew it: you'd show up."

"Like I'd miss this… Right, my fellows?"

"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…"

The 3D images of the "Darkloids" formed there to Twilight's flanks along with Zoan Gate Man and the "Talon" who remained silent and folding their arms.

"Huff. Let's focus on the battle."

A sphere of energy colored purple formed on his hands and began to float around the room while emitting some kind of pulse.

"Beware, Netto – kun. That thing can disable Recovery-type Chips if it this you. However! It's highly vulnerable to Fire-type Chips." Rock Man warned.

"It's solved, then! Battle Chip, Hell's Burner! Slot In!"

"CF" Netto shot the continuous doll of fire at the sphere and it blew up.

"Battle Chip, Dream Aura! Slot In!"

His idea came in handy, since "CF" Ghost had now switched to two purple-colored Long Swords and had tried to hit him: the swords broke upon contact.

"I have a lot of experience in case you didn't know." "CF" Netto warned.

"Che. Spiral Surge!"

"CF" Ghost drew the weapon which he had used to create the sandstorm and shot a spiral surge of energy towards "CF" Netto: when it hit the Dream Aura, however, it was deflected and it destroyed the capsule from which Ghost had originated from.

"Damn!" Wraith cursed.

"Well… I'm not sure what that machine was but it sounds like it was important. Blame your attack's low power." "CF" Netto smirked under the mouth guard.

"Grrr… Shaddup! I'm so gonna beat you up and deliver you to my Mistresses!"

"Revival Wedge."

"Heh, heh, heh. Blame me. I'd been watching _Duel Monsters_." Twilight chuckled.

"Whatever." "CF" Netto shot back.

A brown stone rectangle-shaped wedge came out of the ground: the wedge had a large square with the Egyptian symbol "Ankh" drawn on its body: the table emitted a red glow and a Dream Virus materialized into the room, roaring.

"Hmmm… Meteor Light Barrage!"

"CF" Netto jumped into the air and built up energy on his hands: he shot a barrage of meteors coming from different directions at the Dream Virus, effectively annihilating it.

"Battle Chip, Long Blade! Double Slot In!"

"CF" Netto brought up two Long Blades just as "CF" Ghost shot another spiral surge at the Dream Aura, this time shattering it: he tried to hit "CF" Netto, but clashed against his crossed Long Blades and struggled in the deadlock: it was obvious that he was beginning to get tired.

"First-time "Cross Fusion" users may get tired very quickly and exhaust their physical strength. Your host will eventually be unable to endure this." "CF" Netto warned.

"Bah! I have safeguards. Dark Chip, Engage!" Wraith scoffed.

"What the…! Using a "Dark Chip" while in "Cross Fusion"?" "CF" Netto was surprised.

The familiar "evil face" appeared behind "CF" Ghost and integrated within his body: he roared and recovered strength.

"However… "Dark Chips" are just like stamina! You'll run out of its energies as well!" "CF" Netto announced.

"Bah! I have a limitless supply. I can always draw another one."

"You'll end up losing your sanity and become addicted to them: are you short-sighted or dumb? Twilight. You moron. You're overdoing it."

"A drama isn't a drama sans some tragedy!" He laughed.

"Bah! My Mistresses programmed my body to be fully compatible with them! They have been studying their effects for years! I am to be the Ultimate Warrior!" Wraith proclaimed.

"If you just fought on your own then I wouldn't mind. But forcing someone to undergo such a terribly high degree of physical exhaust is what makes us mad. If you're strong then prove it on your own instead of using your power to rule over others."

"Bah! Save your speeches for a movie! They don't have any effect on me!"

"You asked for it! Vaccine Chip, Load!"

"Whatever you try, it's futile! My Dead Spirits Shield can be engaged again now that I have further Dark Power! Spiral Surge!"

"Gotcha. Battle Chip, Met Guard!"

"CF" Netto summoned three Mettool hard hats as shields: the Spiral Surge was shot back at the Dead Spirits Shield and destroyed it.

"Now! Eat this! Vaccine Chip, Fire!"

"CF" Netto shot a multi-colored blast of energy at "CF" Ghost and it hit his chest emblem.

"Wha?"

The result was immediate: multi-colored bursts of light began to come out from his chest emblem and a soothing blue light travelled across his body.

"H-huh…? W-who a-are y-you…? What are you… doing to me…? Leave me… alone!" The original personality protested.

"Lord Wraith… I failed…!" The other personality roared in agony as it apparently was destroyed.

"GUO~H!" Wraith roared.

"Huh… You… You… Out…! Get outta my mind…! OUT…!" The original personality yelled.

A brutal explosion of yellow light filled the room and caused a shockwave so "CF" Netto shielded himself.

"Whoa!"

"Heh. The conclusion, huh?" Twilight sneered.

The host was lying face down on the ground, having reverted out of "Cross Fusion" when the light returned.

"Whoa!"

They were a young man around Netto's age.

He had blond-like hair and his eyes were closed.

He wore green military attire along with black boots.

He had some cuts and scratches on his face along with some coagulated wounds on his skull.

It was obvious that the clothes had been given to him by either Viper or Bella.

"Damn it."

"Heh, heh, heh."

A cracked Link PET could be seen lying on the ground nearby.

This PET was colored purple and black and it had the _Kanji_ for "Yuurei" or Ghost drawn on its emblem circle.

A broken "Dark Synchro Chip" could also be seen lying nearby, frizzling.

"We did it! I'm pretty sure that Wraith guy has been deleted or is almost dead due to the effect of the Vaccine Chip!" Saito announced.

"Let's check." "CF" Netto replied.

"_Check it out_!"

He picked the Link PET and looked into the screen: there was one word drawn in red Alphabet letters:

"DELETED"

Satisfied, he crushed it with his right hand's strength and kicked it into a corner of the room.

"Go to the scrap-yard."

He then loomed over the "Dark Synchro Chip" and stomped it with his right foot.

"How's everything around - Ayase!" Someone began to ask only to gasp and utter a name.

"CF" Netto turned around to see Martin, who looked like he'd been in a though fight: he ran towards the young man and crouched down next to him.

"You know him, Martin?" "CF" Netto asked.

"Of course I do! He's my step-brother! My dad remarried after he and mom divorced! I'm 23, he's 15."

"Time for a tactical withdrawal… _See you around_."

"Heh, heh, heh, heh."

"Damned freaks!" Martin cursed.

"I guess those two psychos kidnapped him and used him as guinea-pig to try to develop a totally deadly and fanatic "Cross Fusion" warrior by forcing a split personality on him which would be under the control of a rather arrogant Navi." "CF" Netto deduced.

"We managed to get rid of all their weapons using a large quantity of EMP weapons… Those guys are cornered and we're gonna take them to Japan to be judged." Martin explained as he held the unconscious Ayase.

"Well. It's no wonder he's out cold. I had to force him out of "Cross Fusion"… And something tells me he was either drugged or forced into some kind of artificial sleep which nearly ended in a coma… We'll need to heavily interrogate both Viper and Bella."

14:23 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Dad and his wife are on their way here…"

"Poor Ayase – kun… Maybe they picked him in purpose to hurt you?"

"Heck. Knowing Twilight…"

"I get the point."

"He's been missing for 2 weeks and they didn't try to ask for my help: they know I'm a Net Savior…!"

Martin, Netto and Saito were sitting in chairs next to a hospital bed in which Ayase was sleeping.

"Well. All of the Desert Wraiths will be processed."

"Yeah. Public property destruction, military property destruction, military weapons theft, murder, black market deals, kidnapping, illegal experimenting, brainwashing and so on…" Martin grumbled.

"What about the weapons?" Saito asked.

"They'll be sent to Schneider Inc., the company which developed them, to be scrapped and their materials recycled to produce other stuff."

"And his condition…?"

"Huff. The doctors have diagnosed heavy physical exhaust, lack of sleep, loss of weight, partial loss of recent memory, highly probable traumatic experiences and so on."

"No wonder."

"They also added that they could be remedied over time and that thanks to the "Cross Fusion" being aborted, the split personality forced on him was gone and his consciousness hasn't been driven unstable or crazy."

"Uh… Ah… No… Stay away… Don't… touch me…"

The three presents quickly looked at Ayase, who was agitating on the bed: he was obviously regaining consciousness.

"The medics!"

Martin quickly pressed the "CALL" button to warn the medics so a doctor and two nurses walked in soon enough: the doctor softly touched Ayase's right arm and he calmed down a bit.

"Lower the shutters."

The two nurses lowered the shutters and left the room in almost total obscurity: the glow of the life-support monitor illuminated the room: the doctor took out a small flashlight and illuminated his face.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" The doctor asked him.

Ayase slowly opened his eyes: they were emerald green, not unlike Saito's.

"A-are you… a medic…? I am… in a hospital…?" Ayase slowly asked: he sounded rather disoriented.

"Don't be surprised if you feel disoriented. You've been through a lot of things." The medic told him.

"My parents are…?" Ayase asked.

"They are on their way here… This is Densan City Hospital. They should be here in another pair of hours." The medic told him.

"Who… brought me here… then…?" Ayase asked.

"That young man did. I think you know him…" The medic signaled someone with the head.

Martin walked next to the bed and smiled.

"Anichan!" He gasped.

"Yeah. That's me."

"I knew it… That anichan would rescue me…"

"Yeah. But your parents have been somewhat selfish not telling me." He sighed.

"Oh come on. And you didn't know I was gone…?"

"No. But. Relax. You're out of danger. Everything will be back to normal soon enough." Martin told him.

"Out of danger…? I can't recall…"

"It's no surprise. You've been diagnosed with some recent memory loss."

"Ah! I… I… was… different… my body… I felt like… I couldn't control it… I was fighting a Navi… I wanted to stop… but I couldn't… In the end… I somehow recovered enough strength… and focused on breaking out of my state… I fainted…" Ayase gasped and began to recall.

"True. That's what happened just a few hours ago… That guy was trying to help you."

"You know… him…?"

"Yeah. I asked of him to come over along with someone else… Guys!"

"How do you feel? I'm Hikari Netto. I'm the one who helped you come back to normal." Netto announced.

"I'm Saito. I'm his brother." Saito announced.

"Anichan mentioned you two, yeah…"

"Take it easy, Ayase."

"Some water…?"

One nurse handed it to him and he drank it slowly with his left arm since the right one had an IV connected to it which was supplying him with nutrients.

"I feel much better… Thank you." Ayase smiled.

"Anything you want to debrief?"

"Well… Sometimes… I was inside of a machine… I would be asleep almost the whole time… But another "voice" began to echo inside of me. My own "voice" seemed to get weaker and weaker with every passing day… That "voice" sounded like a fanatic… I felt like I would disappear… I was so afraid…" Ayase slowly explained.

"They were trying to create a split personality on you which would only think of fighting and carrying out orders. And it was over-powered during the fight. Luckily, thanks to our combined efforts, we managed to destroy it." Netto clarified.

"Thank goodness… What happened to that spooky and crazy Navi after that?" Ayase asked.

"Well. The destruction of all "Dark Power" on him caused him to be deleted since the Link PET was left in a wrecked state. The "Dark Synchro Chip" broke as well. I made sure to leave both of them in an irreparable state. That guy's gone and there's no bloody way he's gonna come back in any manner. Ever. You can be at peace."

"The _Sheriff_ is going to cover 'em in oil and hen feathers before kicking them outta the town! That's the word of a good Texas _Sheriff_!" Lander announced as he placed the Mexican hat upwards and grinned.

"Heh, heh, heh…" Ayase weakly chuckled.

"Well. Since he seems to be making a favorable recovery we'll leave the room: call us if something else were to pop out."

"Roger."

"By the way… Ayase – kun. Those two women…" Netto brought up.

"… Yeah. They tortured me." He sighed.

"I thought as much. Another reason to lock them up forever."

"Problem is… Twilight. We gotta have them confess where they met with Twilight." Martin fumed.

"True. We need to find out if the guy's still in Melbourne or not."

"They mentioned such a guy, yeah… And I vaguely remember he showed up to look on during the fight… But one day… Something odd happened."

"What?"

"Well… It'd seem those two "played" with someone else but…"

"But?"

"I heard them whisper around the capsule and the guy apparently had found the whole deal "refreshing"… And they named him "Darth Bapgei"…"

"Bapgei?" Netto wondered.

"I think I've heard it somewhere else." Saito trailed off.

"I'll mention it to Vadous… This reeks. Out of the frying pan and into the embers…" Martin muttered.

"And I think… they're that "Talon" guy… It's a hunch, though…"

"So the "Talon" isn't just some guy hired to do a role… They're much more than that… Maybe them appearing in front of Nelaus first and showing up there twice is some sort of competition even…"

"Could be, yeah…"

"Yo. Cyber Snatcher. The Analog Snatcher snatched a Bifrost with a "Heavy Ball"."

"Oh! Anichan's pal: Charles!"

"Yessir! The Analog Snatcher. Anichan Cyber Snatcher caught a _Nibelung_ with a "Timer Ball", see. They're our campaign trophies. Shadow Man had enough with the war helmet of one _Valkyrie_."

"Jeez."

"Shadow Man is that _ninja_ Navi, right? Anichan?"

"Huff. You don't know the guy's exasperating jokes. And when he teams up with Sigma they get worse."

"This city is half-crazy: you're lucky to live away." Netto rolled his eyes.

"Totally."

"Anichan told me, yeah… About that restaurant deal…"

"Maha Ichiban's, huh? Craziest curry shop in the world, I'd name it."

"Totally."

"Heh, heh, heh. I wanna drop by one day and check it out."

"Alright. You've been warned, Ayase." Martin rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of Maha Ichiban's and all… Regal and Laser Man?" Netto brought up.

"They're behaving: Laser Man seems to fear Regal will lose patience and rewrite his personality if he doesn't behave and thus he's been slowly erasing his stubborn and selfish side but that makes him rather doubt-filled… He obviously won't complain to any order from Regal but the surveillance will still continue." Charles explained.

"Alright. As long as they don't try something selfish…"

"Wily is putting pressure too…"

"Fine. Let's settle it at there."

"Lemme quote the newest banner!" Charles announced.

"Trouble." Davis sighed.

"Heh. The crazy Chinese banners, eh?"

"Get ready for something TOTALLY LAME. Ayase."

"Ahem! "Oh, reckless spirit. Thou place is not in the real world but in the spirits' world where even greater sin happens."…"

"Pfff. Sounds like some mockery of Hell." Davis sighed.

"It sure has that… well… weird ring to it, yeah."

"Heh, heh, heh. And this was your toned-down introduction to Akihara City's madness. Next comes Higure Yamitarou and his attempts to be a "shinning man" while trying to play chevalier to Ms. Glassy~…"

"Oi. Charles. Stop pestering him and go interrogate those two. Go."

"OK. I go and don't go. And I don't go and I go. Thus… I do nothing! Let's get moving to a well-deserved break! Heh, heh, heh! I'm a genius: I say!"


	13. Chapter 13: Well deserved break

**Chapter 13: Well – deserved break**

09:18 AM (Japan Time), Saturday April the 9th…

"… What? You dismantled them and didn't tell me? I lost my chance to claim credit for it!"

"Ursula. You're stupid. Did you know it?"

"Heh, heh, heh. Go for it, anichan."

Ursula had popped out in front of Martin and Ayase (wearing a sleeveless reddish shirt, a black belt, jeans, white socks and sneakers) while they were enjoying a _cappuccino_ plus a vanilla ice-cream in a café.

"How dare you!" Ursula hissed.

"You wanted to be ascended? Sorry. But you will have to use your own skill for it and not act like a leech by sucking the blood outta people."

"As long as I'm named Ursula Madgen… I'm not going to give up!" Ursula proclaimed.

"Your daddy thinks otherwise. I rang him up. He's rather disappointed on you and expects explanations from your part."

"Yeah. That's how it is, Miss Magden." Ayase grinned.

Ursula looked taken aback and she began to sweat.

"Ah… Eh… Hum… I… guess I will have to talk with Father… Then… See you around…"

Ursula ran off at a mad speed like a demon was chasing her and was soon out of sight.

"Phew! We managed to shake off the leech." Martin sighed in relief.

"Yeah! We sent it to Utah with the 3:33 PM express train!" Lander laughed.

"Utah, huh? Guess it's a hot-spot: there was the news about that mysterious meteor dropping there in the winter…"

"Bah. No big deal, Ayase. But, really… Dad thought "Net Savior" was…"

"…some fan club or another. He's too immersed on his stock market speculation and all. Mom did try to contact you but Dad was always blocking your number." Ayase sighed.

"Dad…! Luckily you're not as terrible as Dragon Hell."

"What was his latest banner, anichan? Pretty please~?"

"Huff. "Of fools and clowns go the travelers to the Sacred Land."…"

"What? Sounds like some _Zelda_ parody even."

"I suspect Sigma's involved at some stage."

"No wonder."

"At least we had those two confess Twilight is in Melbourne but he's gotta have moved out by now."

"Guess that."

"Heh! Ayer's Rock cursed the poor outlaw." Lander joked.

"Please…"

"Heh, heh, heh... Of Nowhere And Nothing Go The Happy Crowds."

"Shadow Man next? See, Ayase? That's why we said this city's crazy."

"Well, well. If it isn't the lone solitary cowboy far, far away from home…"

"Heh! I'm like Lucky Luke!"

Shadow Man popped out inside of Lander's PET and he got cocky as he drew both Colts and began to spin them by the trigger.

"Shadow Man… Stop meddling around!" Dark Miyabi complained.

"So. Step-brother Miyabi. Are we ready to bring the campaign to foreign lands and foreign dawns and evenings? Heh, heh, heh…"

"Go and play _Tzar: Burden of the Crown_ using the VR Simulator! Tag with Sigma and try to beat the main campaign!"

"Delighted, _daishogun_. Heh, heh, heh. Yo and behold! _Sayounara_."

09:37 AM (Japan Time)…

"… You bloody machine, you collaborationist machine, you renegade machine…! Gimme my money back or else…!"

"Enzan – sama… How can a machine be "collaborationist"?"

Enzan was quarreling with another coffee vending machine inside of the IPC head office, punching and kicking it because his coins had gotten stuck inside and it wasn't working.

"Should I…?"

"Shaddup! I'm so gonna break it down!" Enzan snapped.

"But what if someone saw you, the Vice President, doing such acts, Enzan – sama? The President would get in a rather bad mood, would not he?"

"Forget about the old man. He doesn't even remember he has a son anymore since he's always travelling." Enzan grumbled.

"Ahoy!" Someone shouted.

Something flew over the air and landed in Enzan's head, partly blocking his sight: there was the noise of a Navi plugging into the Cyber World of the coffee vending machine.

"Boo!"

"YIKES!"

The sound of coins hitting the compartment for the exchange could be heard: Enzan quickly crouched and picked his 50 Credits coin.

"So? Are you gonna say "thanks" or not, Mr. Vice President?" A familiar voice asked.

"No! He's gonna kick us out into the street through the back-door for staff only!" Another voice added.

Enzan realized that the thing on his head was a cap which was inclined forward a lot: he adjusted it and spotted both Netto and Saito who looked in a good mood.

"H-how did you two get here?" Enzan asked.

"Please… You showed us the emergency stairs entrance years ago." Netto let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Enzan truly tends to forget things from time to time! Eh?" Saito smiled.

"Mwah, hah, hah! The culprit is the Program – kun dude inside of the Cyber World! He loves seeing you struggling!" Sigma announced.

"Nobody can resist Sigma's scare!"

"What a jerk! I'm so gonna fire him!" Enzan growled.

"By the way… Have you realized what is that cap?" Saito pointed out.

Enzan took it out and examined it, getting a surprise along the way: it was colored red and had Blues' emblem set on the front of it.

"We based it off the caps we got for our last birthday. What do you think of it?" Netto asked.

"Wow. I'm baffled."

"I am sure that Enzan – sama will now attend disco parties with this on."

"Blues. Don't exaggerate." Enzan rolled his eyes.

"I apologize, sir. I was trying to come up with a practical joke, Enzan – sama." Blues bowed.

"Keep at it but remember to interrogate the Program – kun guys. You never know what they might plot next. A revolution of Program – kun guys?" Saito managed something rather close to a chuckle.

"Mwah, hah, hah… You know Vincent's motto: when something or someone ruins his businesses, he fires 'em all! Or he tells them to go fish and tuna and mackerel!" Sigma laughed.

"One of these days he's gonna fire his own alter ego."

"Okay. See you guys around." Enzan smiled.

"Take care, Saito."

11:21 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Heh! With this new strategy… Freeze Man will be blown up!"

"Trouble."

Hinoken was whistling a tune as he loaded some takeaway curry cases on the van: he closed the doors and stretched.

"Hullo."

Hinoken turned around and ended up staring at a _kiritengu_'s mask.

"YEA~RGH! The _kiritengu_! Run for it!"

He jumped into the van, ignited the engine, and sped away: the mask faded away to reveal Dark Miyabi, who looked in a very good mood.

"_Veni. Vidi. Vinci._" He quoted.

"So you're in a good mood by now, step-brother?"

"Man! You win the bet…" Charles walked up to Miyabi.

"I told you going through the side alley was not a shortcut, Charles." Davis looked rather skeptical.

"I knew it! But I thought I could win some seconds' time to set up the hologram projector!"

"Hand it over." Miyabi extended his palm.

Charles grudgingly handed two 500 Credits coins to Miyabi as per their bet agreement.

"Good. I shall acquire a Maha Special. See you around."

"Use a _Star Trek_ machine, oh Star Trek Man." Shadow Man suggested.

Miyabi walked into the restaurant while Charles rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat.

"Let's go bust some Viruses." He suggested.

"O. K., Charlie~ Team!" Davis chuckled.

11:41 AM (Japan Time)…

"… And, then… By using my _Kung – fu_ technique… I sent that villain flying out of my store! De masu! He never returned! De masu!"

"My! How gallant!"

Higure was acting like a show-off after he had come to visit Ms. Glassy and had brought her a rose.

"De masu! But that's not all! I also used my secret _black belt_ skills to reduce an armed thief and hand him over to the police, de masu!" Higure added while imitating _karate_ moves.

"How lovely! Now I can be sure that you will protect me if one of those individuals comes over!" Ms. Glassy sounded charmed.

"De masu! I swear it! I, Higure Yamitarou, shall protect Ms. Glassy! I shall bring a tank if necessary! De masu!"

"Well. I don't think that would be necessary…" Ms. Glassy giggled.

"Yamitarou. Quit it. You're making a fool of yourself." Number Man complained.

"Chut! Number Man! Masu!"

"…propose to…"

"WHA~T? DE MASU~!"

Higure ran out of the store to find Charles and Davis discussing something as they walked down the street.

"…another layer of security and such…"

"I know: we could build a warp device too." Davis agreed.

"Ah! Masu. I got scared and thought Commander Beef wanted to propose to Mariko – sensei!"

"And here I thought you "loved" Ms. Glassy."

"Yikes! De masu! I'm trapped between two ladies! What should I do~?"

11:52 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Your base belongs to us!"

"Sod off."

Omega was facing a simulation of Sword Man: he was using the red head and had tried to do his Great Sword attack but Omega had actually used the sword to propel himself into the air.

"Send my greetings to the Great Evil God of the Reverse Cyber World!"

Omega shot several plasma rounds from his gun and hit Sword Man's heads, melting off part of their protection.

"Why, you…!" Sword Man roared.

"Game Over."

Omega quickly switched to the O – Saber, plunged it into his chest, and jumped away.

"UO~H!"

The simulation finished and he returned to the real world so he examined the results screen:

VR SIMULATOR

MODE: BATTLE

OPPONENT: SWORD MAN EXE

TIME: 01: 25

RANK: A

USER: OMEGA

HAVE A NICE DAY!

Both the matrix and the Dimensional Area disengaged: Omega chuckled under his breath as he walked out of the VR Room and locked it down.

_I'm faster than light! I feel in a good mood… Ready to chase Twilight!_

12:02 PM (Japan Time)…

"… The honorable Confucius once announced that…"

"He announced that you should have the curry ready by now."

A man had been muttering aloud inside of a kitchen.

They looked about a meter and eighty tall and in their late 30s.

They wore a goldenrod tunic and a brownish bamboo hat plus traditional wood sandals.

His hair was black and ended in a thin string behind his head which had a Chinese-like decoration.

His eyes' irises were brown.

"Yikes!"

He turned around to see Vadous standing in the entrance of the kitchen the man had been at: he didn't look in a good mood.

"B-Boss!" The man gasped.

"Dragon Hell. Who were you talking to? Were you making a monologue?"

"Nope! Mr. Dragon was speaking with Trill, Mr. Vadous!" Trill announced: he jumped atop a side table so that they could see him.

"Ah. However… Didn't you hear me requesting a curry over three quarters of an hour ago? Did the interphone break down or did you try to play deaf hoping I'd forget?" Vadous questioned Dragon Hell.

"Eh… Hum…" Dragon Hell seemed at a loss for words.

"Trill has only been here for fifteen minutes, so Trill doesn't know… But Trill wouldn't be surprised if what Mr. Vadous claimed is what is going on." Trill giggled.

"Could you please leave? This is between adults.

"Yup! See ya, Mr. Dragon! You better hope a true dragon doesn't come out and burn you to cinders!"

Trill ran out, giggling: Vadous narrowed his eyes and the cook began to sweat.

"… It's useless to quarrel. I'm off to Maha Ichiban's." Vadous announced.

"What? Boss! You prefer a cheap imitator to a true cook?" Dragon Hell gasped.

"You heard me. A true cook doesn't keep his client waiting for fifty minutes just for a bowl of curry." Vadous glanced over his shoulder at Dragon Hell after he'd turned around.

Dragon Hell gulped and sat down on a chair.

"I better fix my mistake or I'll get into trouble…" He grimly muttered.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Dragon met Hellish Trouble!"

"Sigma – dono…!"

"Sigma. Shut it up."

"Yikes."

"Ah! Dragon. By the way… That chocolate dragon thing… Couldn't you just remove the weird label? Dragons didn't live 15,000,000 years ago and how would you know if they were a neophyte or not, anyway?"

"Ah. Master Confucius said as such some millennia ago."

"Not "some millennia", some centuries… And I'm highly skeptical!"

"Tee, heh, heh! Boo! Roar!" Trill giggled.

"Trill! Come back to the room: the cartoon is starting."

"Yay! Looney Tunes! Taz will cook Bunny a la BBQ!"

"Then I shall make of it my newest recipe."

"I can't say rabbit a la BBQ is bad yet… Don't add anything weird to it!"

"Unless Master Confucius objects…"

"I'm off. Do as you like but next time I'll shower you with cold water!"

14:22 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So… Those annoying guys are not going to bother anyone anymore?"

"That's true."

Aura had, as usual, come to visit Nelaus, who looked in a good mood.

"That's great! This way no one will be bothering us." Aura giggled.

"By the way… Isaac – kun. Where's your sword? Did it get stuck in a rock?"

"Huh? Hum… Ah! You were trying to link me with the legend of King Arthur, huh?" Isaac smiled.

"Yup, I was. So?" Felicia asked.

"No. It's on the closet. I'm going to take it to the antiques shop to be polished again."

"That's good. A knight wouldn't be complete sans his shining sword."

"That's so true." Isaac made a gallant bow.

"You totally look like a _samurai_ in one of those historical dramas!"

"Who knows?" Isaac shrugged.

"Somebody does." Felicia replied.

"And that somebody is me." Isaac guessed.

"They get along quite well! Eh, Nelaus – kun?"

"They sure do. That's a good thing." Nelaus replied while taking a sip of his tea.

"Are we still officially a couple?"

"I never said we weren't." Nelaus reassured her.

"That's good. But of course: I'm taking it very seriously. We've only been like this for a few months." Aura told him.

"I don't have any rush with it. Let's enjoy life."

"I like that idea. I think I should be going back. See you next Monday."

"Take care." Nelaus told her.

"Thanks. _Darling_." Aura smiled at him.

Nelaus actually blushed and looked nervous.

"Gotcha! See ya!" Aura giggled.

"Beware of rusted shields!" Felicia added.

"What?" Isaac looked surprised.

"She is a puzzle." Nelaus scratched the back of his head.

"What do we do?"

"I'll finish the institute stuff. You can go snoop around."

"Leave it to me. By the way…"

"Yeah. Martin told me about "Bapgei"… My antithesis… We'll surely meet again sometime, somewhere."

"Yeah… At least they don't have a Navi so maybe we'll fight together in "Cross Fusion" against them."

"Guess that. I gotta work out a strategy."

"Good. I'll go get up to date in the latest news."

"Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…" A voice rang out.

"Talon. No. Darth Bapgei. You're using a speaker."

"True. Nelaus Rainon! You and I will eventually clash and our destined rivalry shall curse your bloodline!"

"I'm SO scared. Go tell Twilight to hack World of Warcraft."

"Heh, heh, heh. Sure, sure. Master will find a fun challenge there."

"They're gone… They were on the rooftop." Isaac grumbled.

"Whatever. I'm not impressed. Let them come: I'm ready for them!"

16:06 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Yamitarou is acting like a show-off in front of Ms. Glassy. And what's worse: she plays along, further inciting him. This is not going to end well."

"Higure – san has always been like that…"

Saito, as Rock Man, was talking with Number inside of Higureya's Internet City locale: Number Man looked rather exasperated while Rock Man was smiling.

"You don't know how full of _clichés_ his head is… He lives from those and refuses to accept reality. I wish I could come out there and hit him with something to make him snap outta it." Number Man sighed in defeat.

"Really…" Rock Man chuckled.

"Excuse me." A voice called out from behind them.

"Oh! It's a customer!" Number Man sounded delighted.

Rock Man turned around and he was surprised.

"Whoa!"

"Good morning."

A newcomer Navi had come in: this Navi appealed as being close to two meters tall in height.

His main body had a black suit which ended in a Scottish skirt like piece of armor.

His helmet had a triangle-like form which extended forward and included a small red triangle with golden rims on it: his eyes' irises were green.

His ear pads had no drawing on them and black hair came out in pointed shape behind the partly open helmet.

The armor had high neck and his face was protected by a red-colored structure: there was a gap between the chest armor and the skirt around the stomach area and the emblem was set at the start of the skirt: a yellowish-colored octahedron with a metallic gray circle was set there.

The circle had two small vertical squares colored black on the north and south ends complemented with a small rectangle on the middle of its surface.

A gray-colored line formed around the upper edge of the skirt and then descended across the middle of it.

Four pyramid-base-shaped yellowish shapes were drawn on the lower edge of the skirt: two per side.

His shoulder pads which were placed at the sides of his shoulders were colored white and each had a small rectangle cavity on them.

His left wrist had a metallic bracelet which ended in a blade-shaped extension over the hand's palm while his right forearm had a red capsule-like object set on it from which a pale green saber emerged: the opening had four white-colored teeth-like pieces set around it.

The Navi also sported black boots with a thin gray-colored pattern bordering them which started a little below the knee and one small vertical yellowish rectangle slightly above of where the feet fingers ended.

He sported a blue silk cape which fell slightly short of reaching the ground and emerged from beneath his shoulders.

"Huh! You're…!"

"Had we met before?"

"Aren't you Greiga Army's Zoan Colonel?"

"Zoan? Greiga Army? True: my name's Colonel but I work for the Ameroupe Army…"

"Ah! Then you're the original… Wait. I thought you didn't exist in this age to begin with if you resemble your "alternate"… "

"Excuse me? Well… Truth is… Yes. I come from the past."

"What!" Number Man gasped.

"Chut."

"O-okay."

"What do you mean by my "alternate"…? Ah! The "Past Visions"… I see."

"Phew. I thought you'd think I was babbling nonsense."

"Hah, hah, hah. No wonder. Well. I've been fighting the _Valkyries_ for a while and keeping my presence concealed. I figured out the location of the base and mailed it to you guys."

"Thank you."

"What about Twilight and that "apprentice"?"

"We believe they're somewhere in Melbourne but Viper and Bella led us to a blind alley. And we can't force them to reply to our questions either, so…"

"Hum. I see. Well. I think we'll meet from time to time… But… For the time being… Tank Cannon! Two."

"R-roger! Here, sir."

"Thank you. Well then… Rock Man. We'll meet again."

"Alright, Colonel. One thing, though… This city _is_ somewhat mad so be warned." He hushed.

"No wonder. I've already made some research. Feels crazier than Texas..."

"Truly."

"See you around."

"Alright… Number Man! Don't tell anyone: pretend he's a foreigner."

"Oh. If it's that then leave it up to me, Rock Man."

"NUMBER MAN! I DID! DE MASU! MS. GLASSY TOLD ME WE HAVE A PROSPER FUTURE AHEAD OF US! MASU~!"

"That's wrong, Yamitarou. You have a grim future ahead of you. Man."

"Higure – san…! He won't learn!"

17:03 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hmmm…"

"What are you thinking about, Laika – sama?"

Laika had been shuffling through a book: he put it down and smiled.

"Last week's trip at the _onsen_ was very successful." Laika commented.

"It was fun doing it the three of us at the same time."

"I want to plan another similar encounter for next time… I'm afraid it'll have to wait for some months, but it's not impossible."

"I will be patiently waiting for that time to come. By the way: Ooyama Dekao is attempting to contact you, sir." Search Man affirmed while looking animated.

"Ooyama? Patch the guy through."

"Laika~! My Mugen Vulcan Spawn Scheme is a big success!"

"Oh yeah?"

"I beat that Talon guy!"

"It surely was powered down."

"No way!"

"Guts. It was slow."

"And who conspired to degrade me~? Arushi?"

"Arushi? Who's that? I'd rather say it was Cloud Man."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA GUTS HIT ZA FEAR!"

"GATTSU~! Ghost, de guts!"

"Ghost, you say~! Uwa~h!"

"Mwah, hah, hah! Hah, hah, hah!"

"Messing around as always… Those guys won't grow?"

18:24 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… So… What'll happen now that they know? Master?"

"Heh. They know you're going to face Nelaus and most likely won't get in the way… The status quo won't change…"

"I see."

"OH YEAH! LET ZA EYES HIT ZA TONGUE!"

"That's… gross."

"CLOUD MAN! YOU MORON!"

"YIKES!"

Philip and Twilight had been chatting in the Melbourne house when Cloud Man made up a "gross" parody: Philip looked like he found it too gross for his type and Twilight got annoyed.

"Get out!"

"Hmpf." Yamato Man grumbled.

"Really!" Freeze Man fumed.

"The fool!" Cosmo Man complained.

"The guy doesn't learn - AT ALL!" Swallow Man howled.

"Don't come back for a while!" Zoan Gate Man challenged.

"The guy makes me feel annoyed, really!"

"No wonder, Master."

"Did you find those Mistresses' arts refreshing?"

"Totally. I wanted something different."

"Good. I won't have you go through any more trials but if you crave that desire to submit and be tested then I'll gladly test you." Twilight sneered.

"Of course. I must prove I'm worth it. By the way…"

"Yeah. That Colonel guy… Their Operator is an Army guy named Colonel Barrel… A _tai-sa_ controls a _colonel_… Talk about a pun!"

"How old is the guy?"

"About 30, I think. They were involved in the "Spectrum" Project and got along with Wily… That guy told Wily before he died out of an illness to try to atone by helping others… That was about 4 years ago… I'd just gotten my hands in the "Wily Program" and I'd recently managed to digitize my body… But the "Nebula Grey" form was useful to hide my true face for a while and I fooled them into believing I spent the next 2 years globe-trotting too…"

"I see."

"About 2 years ago I built "Neo Gospel" and most of the guys which still remain here nowadays… Right, Freeze Man?"

"Truly."

"Wow. And you saw a remote future, right?"

"Yeah. But I won't spoil much… Just to tell you… The big sagas… They will continue… And continue… And continue… Heh, heh, heh."

"Heh, heh, heh. That just boosted me up! OK! I guess we'll hear news about the remakes of Gen II in the summer like they told us about _Platinum_ about a year ago… Can't wait for them…!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Another reason I'm training you is because I'm imitating Bat-man and how he trained several "Robin" guys… Yet maybe I'm like how Ra's al Ghul thinks Bat-man AKA "Detective" is the only fitting man to marry her daughter Talia… But don't worry! I don't intend to do that."

"Ah! I thought as much. Heh. Ra's al Ghul has always been a cool villain because he has that respect for Bat-man and recognizes his potential."

"My Twilight Instinct tells me that "Priest" guy is about to make a move and we'll see more from them soon enough… Come! And make a move!"

"I like that. Well. Let's look forward to new fun stuff."

17:57 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Fua~h… Damned jet-lag… So… Past. What became of the Desert Nomads guys?"

"Desert _Wraiths_, sir."

"Damn it. I knew I was mixing them up!"

"Do you need help, Reclaimer?"

"Why can't I remember to switch off my own recordings?"

"Well, Priest – sama. I did warn you, sir, but…"

"I wasn't paying attention… AGAIN!"

"Oh boy. Wroh…"

"I know, B…"

"Past" was sitting on the ground atop a hill and looking at the city with his bike parked close by and talking over the PET.

"I sent a report, sir."

"By all the… That experiment… Repulsing! Having an unrelated young man go through such pain and suffering… Damn Dark Land guys! Fuck them!"

"Isn't it, sir? Worse: Twilight is still at large."

"_The rascal_!"

"_Ano yarou me_!" "B" translated.

"Yeah. I guess that."

"Huff. Well. Anyway. I'm in Japan right now. I've prepared a place to direct you guys to and to relay orders… A base… I'll soon give you the address and I'll have you test out the new secondary project… You'll LOVE it. Heh, heh, heh. The Lovely Device~…"

"Priest – sama…!" "AM" sounded exasperated.

"Define "Lovely", Reclaimer."

"Jeez."

"Eh… I understand, sir."

"Have you gotten along with the others?"

"More or less… Present is very stiff, Future's cocky and Prophetess always looks like she's up to something but she always blurts out "_a secret makes a woman, woman_"…"

"Huff. Girls. You don't wanna mess with them."

"Guess that, sir."

"Anyway… I'll soon contact you with the address."

"Roger, sir."

"That's good. See you around."

"Define "good", Reclaimer."

"Nya~h!"

"Priest – sama…!"

"Define "nyah", Reclaimer."

"Go to Hell!"

"Error. No such location in database. Specific coordinates are needed."

"GJLSBHGTKLZBH!" He growled something undecipherable.

"No such dialect in database."

"AM! SHUT THAT LIGHT-BULB THING UP OR I'LL GO INTO BERSERK MODE~! BY DAMNATION AND GEORGE AND SMITH!"

"R-roger, sir. Shutting down, sir… Shut down, sir."

"At last! See ya!"

"Huff. Guess he needs a while to cool it down, really…"

"Mwro~h… Guess that. Heh. I'll soon get to shine! Mwroh, wroh, wroh!"

21:41 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Mwah, hah, hah. Vincent's back with a rhyme~…"

"Huff."

"Alright. Let the guy chat."

"Let's see if he tried to use the head."

The twins had been reading a _tankobon_ or a novel when Saito's Link PET rang and they with Blood Shadow sighed while Sigma chuckled.

"_Caballero! Ha llegado la hora de solventar nuestros asuntos como hombres! Elija el lugar, la hora y las armas! Ahí estaré!"_ A familiar voice announced.

"Huff! He said: "Sir! The time has come to settle our affairs in the manly manner! Pick the place, the time and the weapons! I shall be there!"…"

"You know the reply." Saito shrugged.

"Mwah, hah, hah… _La Granja del Tío Berzas! Primero lo liquidamos y después solventamos lo nuestro! Estaré ahí a las siete de la mañana con las pistolas Mejicanas!"_

"_Excelente! Nos cargamos un colaboracionista de paso! Abajo los traidores! Viva la revolución!"_

Both twins exploded into laughter: they could pretty well guess how the conversation had gone like.

"Mwah, hah, hah… "Uncle Cabbage's Farm! First we get rid of the dude and then we settle our affairs! I'll be there at seven in the morning with the Mexican pistols!"…"

"Tell us his utterly crazy reply." Netto requested.

"Mwah, hah, ha! "Excellent! We're gonna get rid of a collaborationist along the way! Death to the traitors! Long live the revolution!"… He's totally mad by now." Sigma laughed.

"He must believe Mexico is the new Soviet Sharo." Saito smiled.

"Oi. If Laika hears that he'll be cursing all night long." Netto chuckled.

"I wouldn't be surprised at all."

"Mwah, hah, hah! He's fired, after all!"

"We're gonna go have dinner. See you guys later."

"We'll plot how to scare the guts outta Vincent!"

Both climbed downstairs: Haruka had set the supper and Yuuichirou was sitting on the sofa reading the daily newspapers.

"Supper's ready~…" She called out.

"Oho! Coming…" He looked up from the papers.

"Yo. Papa. Glad you dropped by…" Netto greeted.

"The house isn't the same sans you." Saito reminded him.

"I know. Meijin got persistent and he was right, as usual…" He rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Tee, heh, heh. My home-made recipes will help Yuuichirou – san to regain those lost 3 or 4 kilos."

"Man." He blushed.

"Mwah, hah, hah." Sigma chuckled from the bedroom.

"That ain't funny!" Blood Shadow scolded in a hushed tone of voice.

"Oh my. Those two are back at it." Haruka giggled.

"They look so like Netto and Saito…"

"We knew that." Netto sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Guess someone needs to stop eating so much curry~?" Saito teased.

Netto chuckled under his breath, Saito giggled, Haruka smiled, Yuuichirou looked animated too, Sigma chuckled and Blood Shadow giggled too…

**THE END**


End file.
